Pokemon Novien: Phoenix Rising
by Mizagium
Summary: All is not well in the Novien region. A new villainous team is rising to prominence. All original characters. T for safety.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **This is a collection of posts from an "interactive story" my friends and I have created. It was widely successful. But it began as a fanfic, so I'm going top post the fanfiction version for all to see! Be gentle...

**Disclaimer:** Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and GAME FREAK, I just borrowed it.

* * *

Tyler stepped lightly into the Durgood Forest with Archibald at his side. Archibald (Archie) was his Growlithe, a present years ago from his father. Not so much a present as it was an adoption. Archie was a pup found by the Durgood Police Dept. one night. Apparently abandoned, Tyler's father offered it a home.

Now it was his best friend. And they were off to catch their first Pokemon.

* * *

Wesley stood outside his house. His roomie yelled and threw something. A wheezing laughing echoed through.

"Aristar! What are you doing? Are you messing with James again?" He yelled. A little gas ball floated out.

"Maaaaaaaaaaybe..." That was one odd thing about this Gastly. He could talk. And even worse...it acted like any stereotypical ghost. It possessed things. Aristar was just as mischievous as a 5 year old toddler. James didn't like it.

"Dang it Aristar. Ya know that James hates it. And you almost broke my guitar last time." Wesley whispered the last sentence. He hated letting anything happen to his present from his mom. And since he couldn't see her anymore...It was good that he had this keepsake.

* * *

The thick trees of the Durgood Forest rose up around Tyler and blocked out the sun. Eternal night, or close to it. Zubats were out during the day here. Archie put his nose to the ground, then to the air and sniffed. He barked and ran off, leaving Tyler to follow.

They raced through the tangled overgrowth before coming to a rest by a large tree. A single Zubat hung upside down. Tyler recognized it instantly because it had a gash in its left ear. He named it Tallon some years ago, but now he was here to catch it. Tallon understood. It unfolded its wings and dropped down to the ground, prepared to battle Archie.

* * *

"Oh well Aristar. Go get Masamune and lets go. We gotta gig in Durgood." Wesley opened the door and reached down to get his pack.

"You off? Break a leg!" James called.

"Not like you did right?" Wesley called back. James had just recently gotten into an accident with a Bagon. James got a broken leg. The Bagon got away.

"Hey! Shaddup!" Came the response. Wesley laughed and grabbed his motorbike keys. Cycling was fun and all but motorcycles were the way to go. A Ralts slithered(?) up to him.

"C'mon Masamune." He held out its Pokeball. The red beam extended and latched onto the little Psychic. "Okay we're off." And with that Wesley was off on the road towards his next show.

* * *

Tallon dropped to the ground, defeated. Archie was still tensed in case it came at him again, but it wouldn't. The Zubat was spent. Suddenly a red and white ball came flying through the air, hit Tallon, and opened. The Zubat became a form of red energy before vanishing inside the ball. No struggle. Tallon was caught.

Tyler retrieved the ball and stared at it. He did it. He caught his first Pokemon. Archie bounded to his side, barking excitedly. Tyler smiled. "Now we're off." He decided. He produced a map and found the nearest place.

Roi Rill Port. That's where we're going.

* * *

Wesley zoomed through route 312. Aristar easily kept pace. Roi Rill Port loomed ahead. He pushed the accelerator. Before he knew it he saw a girl walking to a stall. Whats bad about this is that Wesley was heading straight for her. What's even worse is that he took the wrong road and didn't have very much room to avoid her. He grabbed the brakes lever on the handles. Tires screeched and the bike began to flip.

"ARISTAR! Grab my guitar and get it off me!" Wes yelled. Aristar obeyed and possessed the electric instrument. It was off before Wes completed the unintentional flip. Its a good thing he wears a leather jacket when he rides. But that doesn't stop it from hurting. Wes screamed as he landed, the bike on top of him. Together they slid to a burning hot stop in the market. Wes was unconscious.

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** So yeah, here's chapter two. Bare with me until it gates interesting.

**Disclaimer:** Blah Blah Blah. Legal stuff.

* * *

Janie relaxed on the beach, letting her light orange hair flow in the breeze. Mary, her Marill, was sitting behind her, and Janie stroked her as she watched the waves break on the shore. She had just gotten out of the water from a swim, and she was letting the sun dry her a bit before heading to Ground Zero, her secret base. Her things were laying beside her, soaking up the sun's rays.

Mary suddenly began bouncing and trying to get Janie to wake up. Janie sat up and looked over to Mary, who had grabbed her arm. "What is it, Mary?"

Mary pointed towards the market where Janie's parents worked selling trinkets and items to decorate your home and secret base with. Janie was supposed to head there around noon for her shift. Janie reached for her bag and pulled out her watch to check the time. It was 12:45.

"CRAP, I'M LATE! Mom's gonna kill me!"

Janie jumped to her feet and grabbed her clothes. She threw on a vest/jacket over her bathing suit, and tied a wrap around her waist along with her bag. She tried to put on her socks and shoes as she ran from the beach towards the market. Mary followed after her.

She sprinted to the end of the market where her mother was standing at the stall, tapping her foot. Janie skidded to a stop right infront of her, trying to catch her breath. Mary ran into the back of her leg and fell backwards. Janie's mother placed her hands on her hips and gave Janie a look that would make any child feel guilty. She looked over Janie's soaking wet hair and clothes, and shook her head. "Had your head in the clouds again, Janie?"

Janie twisted the water out of her hair and smiled apologetically at her mother. "Yes..."

She tied her hair up into pigtails and placed a cap (like a beanie) over her head. She grabbed and apron from behind the stall and went strait to her post. Her mother smiled and tapped on her watch. "I'll expect you home at seven, OK?"

Janie nodded and Mary waved good-bye as her mom walked off towards home. Janie sighed and crossed her arms on the counter. Mary hopped up to the counter and poked Janie, trying to get her to smile. Janie looked over towards Mary and patted her head. "Why is this job so boring, Mary, when there are no tourists?"

Janie jumped when she saw the boy fall in front of her. "Woah!"

She ran to the front of the stall and leaned over the boy. She pulled the bike off of him and knealed down to see if she could wake him. Mary had hopped down with her, and stood next to Janie as she shook the boy. "Hey, wake up! Wake up!"

Others had stopped to look, but most were to caught up with sales and shopping to notice. The boy only looked like he had fallen. Janie saw that shaking wouldn't wake him up, so she grabbed Mary and stood back. "Mary, use water gun."

Mary spat out a powerful stream of water at the boy, trying to wake him. Janie held Mary as she did so. "Come on, wake up!"

She saw him begin to move, so she put Mary down and knelt over him again. "Hey! Are you ok?"

Tyler and Archie arrived in Roi Rill after noon, as the sun began is descent. As they did, they heard a violent crash form the stalls further in. Archie barked and they raced off to investigate.

A bike was upturned in a ruined stall and a girl was kneeling over a boy.

"Is he alright?"

Janie looked up to see someone with an Growlithe walking up to her. "I'm not sure. He just crashed right in front of my stall."

"Guh..." Wesley moaned as the water drenched him. "I don't wanna wake up..." Then a ache spread through his body as he remembered the crash. "I'll be fine." He stood. Wes looked at his ruined leather jacket. "Daaaaang." Full parts of the jacket were frayed off. "I'm Wesley. Who are you two?" He asked completely ignoring the crash. Aristar floated up. A worried look splayed across the gaseous ball. The guitar hanging through the Gastly.

"Wessssssley are you ok?" Asked the specter.

"Huh?" Wes looked confused. "Um....I guess?"

Janie jumped up when the Gastly came up to them. "IT CAN TALK!?"

"Yea. He's cool like that. Its a very interesting story....Kinda." Wes said casually.

"Kindaaaaa?" Aristar wheezed.

Tyler looked from the girl to the boy still on the ground. Archie sniffed the talking Gastly. "Uh... maybe. I'm Tyler. This is Archibald, Archie for short." Archie barked.

Janie noticed Mary hopping up and down next to her. Janie turned to her and patted her head. "What is it, Mary?"

Mary did whatever Pokemon do now to speak...squeaked or something, and pointed at her bag. Janie tilted her head in confusion. "But I don't have to be home until seven. I work here until then.........oh yeah!"

"I'm Janie, and this is Mary."

Mary had hopped up onto the counter next to Janie and was bouncing on her tail, even if she was a little big for that. She hadn't been a Marill that long. She was still used to the Azurill tail. Janie looked at the two boys and wondered if they had secret bases. "We have a bunch of stuff like water balloons, spin mats, music mats, and of course, dolls. Interested?"

Janie went behind the stall and folded her arms on the counter, smiling.

-

Calfrun, watching all of this from behind a tree, was considering approaching these people. That talking ghastly might make a good first catch... or snag, since it appeared to already have a trainer. Luckily, he had brought some snag balls from the base of Team Phoenix. He would have to do this quickly and quietly. He reached into his pocket and found his Torchic's ball. He pulled it out of his pocket and let his pokemon out.

"Torch-" It started to exclaimed, but Calfrun shushed it. _Alright...._ he thought, _let's do this._

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun_  
_


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **Yeah more of it.

**Disclaimer:** Generic Pokemon is not mine stuff

* * *

Vinn yawned and sat up in his bead. Well more like a bunk. His current home was a moderate sized tanker ship off the coast of Roi Rill port. Why? well he liked the privacy...and managed to bribe the previous owners out of it.

After hitting his head on the bulkhead for the thousandths time (insert swearing here) Vinn managed to make it down to the old galley for some breakfast.

After pouring some cereal and milk he was about to dig in when suddenly his spoon started floating.

*sigh* "Zen..." he said exasperatedly. A small Abra popped up on the counter and began waving the spoon around with his spychic powahz. "Zen...we do this every morning. Just give me the spoon!"

Zen pouted playfully and let the spoon fall...into Vinn's cereal and sending milk splashing onto the young mobster. Zen laughed while Vinn just sighed again. It was a typical routine for them. Zen was his Abra, his first Pokemon, given to him by his father.

Well more like Vinn had stopped his dad from selling the Abra to a few shady characters in odd white and red suites.... Vinn took the Abra in. Zen was a playful sort, and while annoying at times, Vinn enjoyed having him around.

"Abra." Zen piped up. Vinn sighed again and cleaned the milk off himself.

"Honestly Zen, you ask every day."

"Abra..."

"Fine we can head into town today."

Zen seemed happy and flitted over to a nearby window to stare out. Vinn opened his wallet to check out their funds.

Zip.

Vinn groaned. They had used up the last of it the LAST time they went to town. "No money...."

"Abra."

"Zen..why is it that whenever I DONT need your input, you never shut up..."

"......abra!"

* * *

Michael looked up when he heard a loud screeching noise. It was the familiar sound of a swarm of Zubat taking flight in haste. He could hear the rustling of the leaves nearby. Hundreds of Zubat flew by overhead as Michael watched.

"_Pshu!_" Xero, Michael's Beedrill said, hovering beside his trainer.

"Yes, I know, Xero," Michael said wearily. "It's just... This forest seems so much more alive than any other I've seen. The Viridian Forest with its myriad of Caterpie, Weedle, Metapod, Kakuna, Butterfree, and its famous Beedrill hive; the Petalburg Forest with its Wurmple, Cascoon, Silcoon, Dustox, and Beautifly; even more bustling with activity than old Fortree City."

He sighed, remembering his hometown. He wondered how his mother was doing. He thought of his father and wondered how his berry farm was progressing. He imagined helping his father with the farm, Xero flying through the plants, watering them with a Wailmer Pail, his Treecko Scar cutting back the weeds with his favorite twig, and his Tailow Breeze... dropping... fertilizer...

"_Pshu!_"

Michael suddenly snapped out of his reverie.

"Alright, Xero, we're going! Scar! Breeze! C'mon! We're off to Roi Rill Port. Maybe we'll see some Bellsprout on the way! Haha!" Scar, who was leaning against a tree nearby, jumped up and ran toward Michael, jumping up on his shoulder. Breeze was flying through the trees and, picking off some berries, she dropped the berries in Michael's open backpack and began circling around his head. Xero impatiently floated onward into the woods. When they were all set, Michael pushed a button in his running shoes with his toes and took off toward Roi Rill Port.

* * *

Calfrun frowned. At first glance he hadn't realized how many pokemon were there... Perhaps there was another way to do this. He walked out from behind the tree, and approached the others, His torchic, Xadc, following close behind.

"Hey there!" he called, "Is everything alright here?"

* * *

Aristar disappeared into Wes' pack, soon emerging with some Pokebucks.

"Caaaan I buuuuy some Poketreats if yaaaa got aaany?" He asked. Wes rummaged in his pocket. He retrieved his wallet opening it to an empty holder.

"Why is it my pokemon always have more money than me?" Masamune sprang from his pokeball shivering. "What Masamune? Stop being paranoid." We took his guitar and pulled the strap over his head. He strummed a little than played a little of his gig that he was supposed to be going to. "Looks like I won't make it. My motorcycle is trashed." He turned and took out the Pokenav. "Hey guys...Yea I crashed. I'm in Roi Rill....Yea I know...Gah!" And with that the band mates had kicked him out. "Looks like we're going solo Aristar."

"Aaaaaare they being idiots aagaaaaain?" Aristar looked annoyed. They did these sort of things a lot.

"Yes. But no accepting to rejoin." They spoke off to the side.

"So poketreaaaats????" Aristar looked hungrily at Janie.

Janie shook her head at the Ghastly. "Sorry, we only sell decorations, but mainly stuff for secret bases. Do you guys have a secret base?"

"Sadly....No. But if you have the TM...?" Wes responded. Aristar stared hungrily at a restaurant. "No Aristar, don't do what I think you want to do." Then was when he noticed the Torchic and other figure walking to him. He's alittle slow. "Do you know where I can get a job playing a gig here?"

Wes took off the worthless leather jacket. A few people gasped as they recognized him from his ex-band. Quickly he replaced the jacket with a zip up hooide and, leaving the zipper undone, he placed the hood on his head. Holes were riddling his jeans. Wes leaned against a wall and kept strumming the song, humming the singing. He noticed a teen running up to the stall.

Deciding that he didn't like being ignored, and that if his plan was going to work he needed to be on the ghasty's good side... for now anyway... Calfrun reached into his pack and pulled out some poketreats.

"Here." he said as he tossed them into the air. Xadc jumped at them, but Calfrun grabbed one of his legs. "Not for you!" he growled quietly so that only Xadc could hear it.

Aristar gulped down the treats. Still hungry but satisfied, he 'rested' on Wes' head. Masamune was still squeaking, sensing something. But the poor guy was paranoid.

Janie smiled brightly. "Of course I have the TM! It's 100 pokebucks!"

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

TheHiddenAssassin

Xero


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **Yeah, another crap chapter of my me and my friends screwing around.

**Disclaimer: **I don't know why I even bother with this part...

* * *

A rather large explosion shook the ground. Although it was not mentioned in the tourist catalog, Roi Roll Port was actually home to a team Magma base. Several members of Team Aqua were running as fast they could.  
"GODZILLA! USE HYPERBEAM! DIABLO! USE FLAMETHROWER!"  
More explosions rocked the ground, and 2 members of team aqua were sent flying into the air.

DERRICK walked away from the battle with a smirk on his face. Another $2,500 would soon be in his account at the bank. Although, not an official member, DERRICK often did odd jobs for his favorite terrorist group. With his Feralligator (Godzilla) and his Charzard (Diablo) no one could beat him.

* * *

Michael approached the stall but jumped when he heard the explosion.

"What was that!?" he shouted.

"_Pshu! Pshu!_" Xero replied.

"Yeah, I thought I heard a Feralligator. But why would a Feralligator attack members of Team Aqua?" he wondered, staring at the place the Team Aqua members had disappeared. "Hmph. Oh, well." He turned to call Scar back to him, but Scar was gone! "Scar! SCAR! Where are you?"

"_Treecko!_" came a high-pitched voice from behind him. Michael turned to see Scar circling the stranger's Torchic.

"Scar!" Michael chided, scooping Scar up in his hands, away from the Torchic. "I'm sorry, Mister..." he waited from a reply.

Calfrun turned and considered ordering Xadc to kill the newcomer, but decided that it wasn't a good idea since he was outnumbered here. Instead he replied, "Errr... don't worry about it. He would have just burned himself anyway."

* * *

Vinn waked through town with Xen jumping along happily beside him. Vinn sighed at his friend's behavior. Honestly...Xen acted like such a kid sometimes.

Vinn paused when he noticed a group of kids around his age gathered around a stall? "Eh...no money to be had there.."

Then he heard the explosion.

...and watched a couple of Team Aqua members land right in front of him...looking worse for wear. Vinn stared at them for a second.

"Oh yeah...there's a Team Magma base near here.." he said offhandedly. Glancing around quickly, he then said, "Okay Xen, lets get rid of these two. Magma always pays well for these boys." Vinn said happily.

"Abra..." Xen muttered and levitated the two K. aqua members. Then Vinn spied DERRICK.

He recognized him instantly, the two had done a few odd jobs for Tea Magma before. "Hey! You drop these?" Vinn called over.

* * *

Wes sat. Masamune slithered over and sat in his lap. Masamune was newly hatched. He had taken way to long to hatch. Still playing Wes, set out a little bowl for money. Aristar began pranking passerby. And he got PAID to do it. _Still more money then I have..._ Wes sighed.

"Aristar you have all the money. You want it you get it." Wes informed him. Aristar sighed and stopped his shenanigans. He pulled out 100 monies and balanced the TM on his head.

Calfrun was getting irritated by the fact that a bunch of random crap kept happening, when he saw Vinn. "You look familiar... It's Vinn, right?" He then remembered that he was trying not to reveal that he was from Team Phoenix. "Dammit." he muttered, then to Xadc, "Be ready. I've got a bad feeling about this." The Torchic merely walked over to a treat Aristar had missed and started eating it. Calfrun facepalmed.

Vinn noticed Calfrun and smiled. "Ah yes....." he began. Then he noticed that Xen had wandered over to a stand and was juggling cabbages with his mind.

...again.

"Dang it Xen!" He yelled over. Xen dropped the cabbages, sending them splattering to the ground in a heap. THe cabbage stand man stared at his ruined produce for a moment before crying out in anguish,

"MY CABBAGES!"

Xen popped over to Vinn and hopped up onto his shoulder innocently. Vinn sighed. "So, Calfrun right? I haven't seen you since that job at the Aqua gym."

* * *

Wes stared. And listened. Obviously this wasn't good company. Aristar seemed to understand so he floated over to his side.

"Be ready." Wes whispered.

* * *

"Um... yeah..." Calfrun said, while making that shut up motion with the hand and the throat and whatnot. He walked over to Vinn and whispered in his ear, "You see that Gastly? It can talk. I imagine it would fetch a decent price, at the very least. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how many trainers were here, and it would be better if they didn't know I was from Team Phoenix."

Vinn nodded. "Ah I see...so how's Team Phoenix?" he asked with complete disregard for Calfrun's warning.

Xen facepalmed. "Abra...."

Calfrun glanced back at the others. "Perhaps we could catch up some other time... now isn't exactly... convenient."

Vinn nodded. "Sure. I gotta find a way to get some money.." at this he glanced over at the Gastly, "quick. Me and Xen will be at the casino." he said with a wave. The boy and abra headed down the street.

Derrick,snapping out of his unexplained stupor ran up to Vinn. "Sup, Vinnie?"

"Hey, DERRICK." Vinn said with a grin. Xen hopped onto Derricks shoulder happily. "And don't call me Vinnie...my father called me that." Vinn said with distaste. "So I see Team Aqua is getting braver." he said with a nod toward the two forgotten Aqua members....laying in the street...

Calfrun saw DERRICK, but didn't recognize him, so he went back to trying to figure out a way to get that gastly. His Pokétch suddenly started beeping, indicating that he needed to return to Team Phoenix's HQ. "Crap..." He said, disapointed about missing this opportunity. "Well," he said,"something's come up. Later everyone. Xadc, return!" At that, a red beam came and pulled Xadc back into the Poké Ball. Calfrun found his bike nearby, and started heading back to base. This had better be important.

A small smile appeared on Derrick's face. "I for one believe that Team Aqua is just getting more stupid. Also, never work for them. They pay you in food stamps."

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Xelwes

Calfrun

TheHiddenAssassin

Xero

With special appearance by TEAM_DERRICK


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note:** I have like twenty of these sitting around so I'm putting them up one a day. And look, two in a row without me!

**Disclaimer:** Please...

* * *

Michael examined the two cooperatives. They were clearly up to no good.

"Hey, Xero," he whispered. He nodded at Calfrun and Vinn. Xero nodded in comprehension.

Scar, meanwhile, was struggling in Michael's arms. Michael let him go, and he immediately ran over to Wesley and his Gastly in curiosity.

"Treecko!" he muttered in awe when he realized that Wesley was a rock star, and Gastly was not a normal Gastly.

"Scar," Michael sighed, exasperatedly. "Come on. Back in your Poké Ball."

Scar slouched and stuck out his lower lip but went in his Poké Ball without argument. Now only Xero remained outside with Michael.

"Hi," he said, advancing toward Wes. "My name is Michael, and this is my Beedrill, Xero. That Treecko you just saw is called Scar. He's a little nosy, but you get used to it." He paused, then started with recognition. "Hey! Aren't you Wesley, that famous rock star? And is this your talking Gastly? Wow! I'm a big fan! Will you sign my Master Ball?"

"My hood isn't working...."He whispered, "Sure! Nice to meet you." He held out his hand. "This is Aristar." Aristar floated rapidly around Michael's head.

"Hello!" The Pokémon spouted.

Jannie took the money and placed it in the register. She eyed all the people that were around her stand. That boy from the boat offshore was here now, and two other kids, not including Wesley and Tyler. And now some other kid was showing up too. All these people were in front of her stand, making it look preoccupied. They were keeping away potential customers.

Normally Janie was pretty carefree and bubbly, but when faced with a situation where that didn't work she could be very serious. She tried to get everyone's attention, but they were ignoring her. She sighed and looked over at Mary, who was poking her. "I know, Mary, just give me a second."

She took a deep breath and spoke as loud as she could without disturbing other stands. "EXCUSE ME, BUT YOU'RE BLOCKING MY STALL!"

"DO YOU SELL FOOD?" DERRICK yelled back.

Janie sighed and facepalmed. "No, I sell secret base stuff and decorations...and one TM. THAT'S IT!"

"I dun't haz monies!" Vinn said eloquently. "BUT...I can offer 'protection' for some food." Vinn said with a sly smile. Then his look got desperate when his stomach started growling. "PlEaSe JuSt A lItTlE?

Janie was getting impatient. Her bubbly personality totally faded, and all that was left was irritation. "I DON'T HAVE FREAKIN' FOOD!"

Michael turned to Vinn, pulling two berries from his backpack. He threw them to Vinn.

"Here. Eat that."

Vinn wolfed down the berries in a flash. "ThAnK yOu.." he said and turned normal again. "Now about money....well I guess I could always go collect my payment from the Team." he said thoughtfully. "They owe me from that last rai-" Then he realized he was talking out loud in front of a group of people. "Ah...that last job." Sighing he absently picked up Zen and began walking away.

"Abra!"

"No we are NOT stopping at the arcade!"

DERRICK, with his hunger getting the best of him, reached out to the nearest tree, grabbed a Wormple, and ate it. He then proceeded to walk with Vinn.

* * *

"Hello, Aristar," Michael said. Xero moved forward to observe the talking Gastly. "Thanks!" Michael said enthusiastically, grabbing his Masterball from his belt and holding it out to Wesley. Scar suddenly popped out of his Poké Ball and jumped into Michael's backpack. He began rummaging around, knocking Michael about. He finally emerged with a pen and a smile on his face. "Haha. Thanks." Michael handed the pen to Wes.

Then he turned to the girl at the stand. "Did you say you sell decorations for secret bases?" He pushed aside a few of the bystanders. "I'll buy some. How about a couple music mats and a Treecko poster?" Scar perked up when he heard this. Michael reached in his pocket and pulled out a couple hundred Pokédollars.

Janie perked up when someone became interested in secret bases. "Sure."

She reached behind the stall for some of the mats while Mary grabbed a poster and handed it to Michael. Janie popped back up to the stall and exchanged the merchandise. "So you have a secret base?"

"Yeah, back in the Durgood Forest," Michael replied, turning to glance at Wes to see if he was done signing his Master Ball yet. "It's not much. See, I haven't been here long. I came Hoenn about a month ago. I've just been exploring the forest so far. I haven't gotten a chance to get around to many places yet." He handed Janie the money and took the mats and poster. Then, holding out his hand, "By the way, my name is Michael. And that Beedrill talking to that Gastly is Xero."

Janie shook Michael's hand and smiled. "I'm Janie, and that Marill bouncing over there is Mary. She's still used to bouncing on her tail."

Janie eyed Mary, who was bouncing around on her tail on the counter, nearly knocking over small knick-knacks. "I have a base out in the rocky area of the ocean here, but you'll never find it. I've had a lot of time to collect tons of boobie traps."

* * *

Now, Calfrun was pissed. As it turned out, he had been called back to HQ because an Eevee had gotten loose in the building and was making a mess of the place. And nobody could catch it. Though it was true no high ranking members had been bothered with this, it still embarrassed him that there were members of Team Phoenix that couldn't catch this thing. Once he found the room it was in, he let Xadc out. The small Torchic may have been annoying, but its hyperness made it a great asset, as it had quick movements.

It quickly caught up to the Eevee, and set it on fire using ember. Then it used peck. While the eevee was recovering, Calfrun threw a pokeball. It pegged the Eevee right in the face, then opened and sucked in the small Pokémon. Calfrun picked up the Poké Ball and put it in his pocket.

"Thank you for catching that Eevee for- wait, where are you going?" one of the peons there said. Calfrun glared at him.

"If you couldn't even catch this Eevee, you don't deserve it. It's mine now. As far as where I'm going, I've got a talking Gastly to catch." And with that, Calfrun has left the building.

* * *

"A Wormple?" Calfrun asked DERRICK. He was standing right behind everyone, so his appearance was a bit of a surprise. "Is the food back at Magma HQ really so bad that you have to eat Wormples?"

Vinn popped back up randomly. "YES! When they even LET you eat at all!"

"SADLY YES!" yelled DERRICK.

"And while we're introducing ourselves," Calfrun added, "I'm Calfrun, member of Te-" He stopped short. "I'm Calfrun. And this hyperactive little pain in the ass," he released Xadc, "is Xadc, my Torchic."

Janie eyed the boys over to the side. One had eaten a.....Wormple? "Um.....can I help you?"

"Hey, I asked for some food, and you didn't give me any." replied Derrick, with some Wormple still in his teeth.

Calfrun glanced over at the chick in the stall. "Not unless you've got a Fire Ftone or a Moon Stone. No? Then no, you can't." He didn't mean to snap like that, but he never had been good at acting, and this "friendly guy" thing just wasn't him.

Vinn saw how poorly Calfrun acted and sighed. Vinn was better at acting the happy yet witty normal guy. It made sure no one recognized his affiliation with Team Phoenix. And then there was his odd jobs with Team Magma....

"Actually...do you know of any old ruins about this area?" Vinn asked suddenly. "I've been meaning to go look around the country-side but don't know where to start."

Janie first turned to the guy with the Wormple and sighed. "I already told you, I don't sell food, and you _just_ ate."

She then turned to Vinn and thought about all the places off the shore or nearby. "There's a shipwreck not too far from the shore in a rocky area. You could swim there, a lot of people do."

Calfrun noticed Vinn's disapproval of his way of handling things, but undercover just wasn't his thing. He was sort of like an assassin, though he usually didn't kill his targets. Anyway, he would stay here for now. He was determined to get that Gastly.

Vinn nodded and wordlessly left. Zen followed behind him, for once silent.

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

TheHiddenAssassin

Xero

With special appearance by TEAM_DERRICK


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:** More of ths crap! Yay!

**Disclaimer:** GAME FREAK and Nintendo own all of the Pokémon and items, but the characters and region is mine and my friends.

* * *

Michael chucked a couple more berries at the random Team Phoenix members to shut them up.

"In the ocean, huh?" He thought a little bit. "Is it on the other side of that whirlpool? Off the Gravensoil shore? I passed by a big cave over there on my way here from Hoenn. That place is pretty spooky. I'd stay away from there."

Janie watched them leave and looked at her watch. It was only around 3, but she decided that there would probably no new customers for a while. The small gathering of trainers seemed to scare them away. Janie took off her apron to reveal her vest and bathing suit underneath. She made sure her choker and necklace were aligned before bending down to fix her socks and shoes, since she had rushed here before.

She pulled up her socks to about halfway up her thigh, and tightened her sneakers. Marill bounced off of the counter and next to Janie as she got up to leave. "Well, it was nice meeting you guys."

She turned to head for the beach so she could go to her secret base.

"I guess I'll see you around, since I've got nowhere to go," Michael said. "Thanks for the decorations."

Michael turned to Wesley. "So, Mr. Wesley, where are you headed? Maybe I can accompany you there."

Wesley handed Michael his master ball back.

"Well I'm going solo, not what I want. But hey I was gonna go find a cafe or something, see if they want an act. I need money, see, I'm broke." Wes pulled out an odd sphere. And a screwdriver. He liked to make things, and this was one of his special Poké Balls. He had caught Aristar with one, and Masamune with another. This one was made for a dragon type. "After that I was going to head back to my home in Burlain. You can come if ya want to."

"Ooooooh by theee waaaaay, he doesn't like the word missssster. Caaaall him Wessss. Or Wesssssley." Aristar informed Michael.

"Return Masamune." His small little Ralts then zipped back into his special little hideaway in a large marble-sized ball.

"Thanks for the tip," Michael said to Aristar. Then, speaking to Wesley, "That sounds great! I'm always up for a little exploring!"

"Your welcome." Aristar said. He looked over at Tyler. And with a tongue flapping about, he spun quickly.

"Aristar..." Wes sighed. He began to walk off towards a small shop with a few tables outside. It seemed like a promising venue.

Scar began running circles around Wesley, hoping Aristar might come down so they could talk/play/whatever on the way there. Xero kept it cool and flew silently beside Michael.

Michael followed Wes to the stall and looked around. Down the street he saw a couple food stands and wondered why the Team Phoenix members hadn't gone there. He looked the other way and saw a Poké Mart and a Pokémon Center, as well as a few shops that sold TMs, vitamins, and other assorted items. He pulled 100¥ from his pocket and handed the money to Scar, instructing him to go buy a Carbos and some Iron. Scar jumped up, landed on his tail, and pushed off the ground hard, soaring through the air all the way to the vitamin shop.

"Hey, Wes," Michael said. "I've got to use the payphone." He held his hand up to his face, his thumb at his ear and his pinky at his mouth. "I'll be right back."

He walked across the street to a small stand beside the Durgood Forest. On the wall of the stand was a video phone. Michael punched in some numbers, and soon the face of Professor Birch appeared on the screen.

"Hello, Professor!" Michael said.

"Michael!" the Professor exclaimed enthusiastically. "How are you?"

"I'm doing pretty well, sir."

"How's that Treecko of yours doing? Is it doing better after that fire?"

"Yes, Scar is doing much better." Scar jumped up on Michael's shoulder suddenly, holding three bottles, one of Carbos and two of Iron. "In fact, here he is right now! Haha."

"Hello, Scar!" Professor Birch said.

"Treecko!"

"Well, Professor, I just wanted to let you know I'm in Roi Rill Port in the Novien Region now."

"Novien! My, that's far out of the way. What's it like? Have you seen any new Pokémon?"

"It seems very alive. At least, the Durgood Forest seems that way. The Pokémon... I haven't seen any I haven't seen before. But I did meet a talking Gastly and his trainer."

"A TALKING Gastly!??"

Michael grinned. "Yes, sir. His name is Aristar, and his trainer is Wesley, the famous rock star!"

"Really, now? That's a mighty fine discovery."

"Yeah, I was really surprised I got to meet them. Well, I should get going. I'm traveling with Wesley right now, and he's got a gig right now. Looks like it's getting pretty crowded, so I should go catch up with him before I completely lose him."

"Alright. Well, good luck in Novien, Michael!"

"Thanks, Professor. Oh, by the way, you wouldn't happen to know anything about the Team Magma and Team Aqua bases here, would you?"

"Hmm... No, I don't think I do. I didn't know Magma and Aqua had extended their reach so far. Hold on a moment." Professor Birch pulled a binder from beside his video phone and flipped it open. "It says here that Team Magma and Team Aqua have small sub-bases in Novien, but they do not have any particularly important strongholds. But there is another team in Novien you should know of. It's called Team Phoenix . They seem to be the dominant force in Novien, and they tend to intervene in any and all Magma-Aqua skirmishes. That may sound good at first, but they have a record of stealing Pokémon, much like Team Snagem in the Orre Region."

"Thanks, Professor. I'll keep that in mind. Well, I'd better go."

"Good luck."

"Bye."

Then Michael headed over to the stall where Wes was.

Wes set up his little hasty stage. With the help of Masamune and Aristar it was quick. From his case he pulled a 20 watt amp. Hooking up for a secret show was often fun, but when it wasn't planned at all, it wasn't.

"Sir, do you have a microphone?" He asked.

"Yes, I'll be right back." Soon the teen returned holding a small beat up mic.

"I guess it'll do." Wes sighed as he saw Michael returning.

* * *

Apparently no one noticed Tyler, because they all left him at Janie's stall. "Hey!" he yelled. "I'm here too!"

Janie stopped and glanced back at her stall. "Oh, sorry. I didn't see you there. There were so many people. You can tag along with me if you'd like."

* * *

Calfrun was about to follow Wes, but then his Pokétch started beeping again. "I swear to god, if this is another freaking Eevee..." He said angrily.

As it turned out, there was another Eevee loose in Team Phoenix's HQ, but that wasn't why he was being called there. Team Phoenix had just signed an agreement with Team Magma, dividing rights of control over Novien. The Phoenix and Magma conquest was about to begin.

Calfrun entered the briefing room. "Ah, there you are." said the commander of this mission. "I assume you heard the news?" Calfrun nodded.

"I've been waiting for this day." he said. "If we succeed, it will have been worth not getting that Gastly." Before the commander could say anything, an Eevee fell from the ceiling and landed on his head. It jumped again, but Calfrun grabbed it. He then proceeded to punch the small Pokémon until it lost consciousness. He used a Poké Ball on it.

The commander had apparently forgotten what he was about to say. "Everyone to the airship. Our first target is Darongonind." Calfrun put the new Poké Ball in his pocket and started towards the ship. There was a healing machine on it, he would deal with the wounded Eevee there. He had more important things to think about at the moment.

They were about to raid Team Aqua's Novien HQ.

* * *

Vinn stepped into the cave and glanced around. Sure enough, there were a great deal of old ruins and crumbled buldings in the large cavern. "Perfect." Vinn muttered. Zen trotted behind him slowly.

"Abra..." there was almost a warning tone in the voice. Vinn stopped when he saw light up ahead, further into the ruins. Quietly Vinn and Zen slipped over a fallen pillar and ducked behind a wall. There were three of them.

Explorers from the looks of it. Harmless enough...but they were in Vinn's way.

Vinn reached into his pocket and withdrew a Poké Ball. Then he stepped out into the light.

The three men jumped up from their lunch in surprise when he appeared seemingly;y from nowhere. "Oi? Hello there." one spoke up. 'Didn't think there was anyone else exploring these old caves."

Vinn said nothing and simply held out the Poké Ball. "Let's go, Scynn." he said and threw the Poké Ball. A Scyther appeared, leering dangerously.

"Scyther.."

"Oi..what are you.." before he could finish the Scyther lunged. He swung a bladed arm, burying it in the closest man's chest. The man went down sputtering as he bled. Scynn whirled around and with his other blade beheaded the second man just as quickly, sending more blood flying.

Now the third man tried to run, but found that he was frozen in place. "W-wah??"

"Abra..." Zen jumped up on Vinn's shoulder, holding the man in place. Scynn turned slowly and swung both blades.

Vinn left Scynn to guard the entrance while he carried on into the ruins, leaving the three bodies behind.

After traveling a small distance in, he found a wall bearing strange markings and an archaic drawing of some sort of Pokémon.

"Bingo."

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

TheHiddenAssassin

Xero


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note:** You guys won't believe this: I accidentally erased everything I have! So, I've spent the last day and a half rebuilding it all. I got most of it back, but It may be a while before I can update anything besides this... so... yeah...

**Disclaimer:** Blah blah blah! Nintendo rox my sox!

* * *

Ryan awoke in his bedroom, surprisingly small in size, consisting of only a computer, television (with one channel), a clock and a bed. Since his mother was on her own and being Pokemon researcher wasn't lucrative, they couldn't afford much. Ryan went downstairs to the only other room in the house, the kitchen/living room/dining room. It also had dishes, a table, and a television that could only play one movie.

"Oh, Ryan, you're awake!" Yudelle ran up to her son and hugged him, glad he was ready to start his first official day in his new home.

Ryan was confused with the embrace but accepted it nonetheless.

"Ryan...I don't know how you'll see this but..." Yudelle said with a mixed expression of glee and sadness.

Ryan stood there nonchalantly, confused again.

"I quit my job!" she yelled happily! Ryan's slight confusion evolved into bewilderment. "This means that we get to stay in one spot! I've already found a new job working with the local professor! It pays a lot more than my old research job did! Best of all, the professor isn't too far!"

Ryan smiled and hugged his mom again.

"The best part is...now that I'm going to be in spot, you can train your Dratini!"

Ryan beamed at the words, ready to train the Pokemon his father had left him before he disappeared so many years ago.

"Well, go on! I know you're eager to go off! I've already left you a surprise in your closet upstairs!"

~We have a closet?~ Ryan thought.

* * *

Satisfied with his finds, Vinn left the caves and headed back into town. Then he noticed the smoke rising in the distance and remembered that Team Phoenix had been planning a raid today.

"Dammit I'm late!"

Vinn took off with Scynn and Zen close behind.

* * *

"NO! PLEASE!" A Team Aqua member yelled as Xadc, Calfrun's newly evolved Combusken, beat the living crap out of him. Calfrun watched proudly as the man slumped to the ground. It was true that Pokémon were just tools. However, one could be fond of one's tools, right? Calfrun looked around at the bloody mess. Team Aqua hadn't stood a chance from the combined might of Team Magma and Team Phoenix. And when his Combusken had evolved...

It was now not only faster than ever, but its attacks were quite effective. Calfrun had seen many lives lost today because of double kick. Though it was true some members had escaped and would call Hoenn for reinforcements, this attack meant that no matter how many members of Team Aqua came, they could be defeated. Of the hundreds of people who went on this mission, there had only been 10 reported casualties.

Suddenly, two members of Team Aqua jumped out Calfrun. He threw his Poké Balls at them, which hit them in their guts and made them have to stop and catch their breath. The balls then opened, revealing the Eevees inside. They flew out and clawed the Aqua grunts' eyes out. Calfrun was overjoyed with it all. This marked a new day for Team Phoenix, and a new day for all of Novien.

Calfrun saw Vinn approaching. "You're late!" he called. "We've already dealt with the majority of their forces, we're just taking out a few survivors. Undoubtedly some will escape, but there's not much they, or anyone else for that matter, can do."

Xadc grunted in agreement.

Vinn smirked. "Then leave the survivors to me then." he said, and with a wave of his hand, Zen and Scynn were off. He turned back to Calfrun.

"Oh and..if any of our men get in my way.." a dark look entered his eyes. "I'll cut through them too."

Calfrun smiled. "I would expect nothing less." He then hear a noise behind him. He turned and saw one of his Eevees, named Exia, playing with something it had found on the corpse of one of the Team Aqua guys. Calfrun walked over and discovered that it was a Moon Stone.

He was now having an even better day. This would go for an amazing price on the black market. He wished that he could use it on his own Eevee, but it would have to like him for that to happen, and he wasn't the most kind of trainers.

Suddenly, both Exia and the stone began to glow so brightly that Calfrun had to look away. When the light subsided, Calfrun turned back and almost fell over in surprise. Where his Eevee had been standing there was now an Espion. That meant that Exia actually did like him. His first thought was of how messed up in the head that Pokémon was. Then he felt something. He wasn't sure why, but he felt the urge to go pet the Espion.

Sickened by this, he returned Exia to its Poké Ball and continued the mission.

Vinn strode through the wreckage with an air of boredom. "*sigh* there really aren't that many survivors. Guess that's what I get for being late." he said to himself. Just then an idea occurred to him. "Scynn, come with me. Zen...have fun."

"Scyther...

"Abra!"

Vinn led the Scyther around a few hallways until he was at a huge vault. This was where Team Aqua held most of their more valuable items apparently. There was a Team Phoenix member guarding it, and he snapped to attention when Vinn approached.

A rookie. Great.

"Sir. Orders are that no one is allowed to enter, sorry." the new guy said. Vinn hummed.

"Well that's just too bad." he said. With a quick twitch of his hand, Scynn lunged.

Vinn walked past and into the vault, ignoring the screams. "Ah here we are." he muttered. There was an abundance of Poké Balls and stones lining the walls. "Jackpot."

So Vinn began picking and choosing as he went. He grabbed a lightning stone, thinking of his Eevee. Then he went for the Pokémon.

Vinn ignored most, he had no interest in them. There was one thing Vinn was interested in, and that was Dragon-type Pokémon. There were a few to select and Vinn did so.

He grabbed a Larvitar, a Gabite, and tucked in the back he found, much to his surprise, a Gyarados. "Well I think this will do." he said, pleased.

"Ha, looks like we had the same idea." Calfrun said to Vinn, after coming in only shortly after him. "Though I don't exactly approve of the way you got rid of the rookie outside, I suppose you did say that you would get rid of ANYONE in your way." Calfrun picked up a three Poké Balls and a Dark Stone. "That ought to do it for now. These three now complete my team of six."

His mistake: he didn't check what was in the Poké Balls first.

"Now." Said Commander Tathesh of Team Phoenix, "we will begin taking over the ares between out three current strongholds, until we control a large, triangular section of Novien..." He kept talking, but Calfrun wasn't really listening. He was upset that the three Pokémon he had grabbed earlier were a Piplup, a Starly, and a BIDOOF of all things. He only had two Pokémon on his team that he considered any good at the moment. Especially since that damn Eevee wouldn't evolve like the other one did. Of course, he hadn't punched the other one.

"In addition," Tathesh continued, "we have recently received two new technologies from different region. We now can not only generate shadow Pokémon by closing the doors of the hearts of normal Pokémon, but also we can MAKE a Pokémon evolve using a stone, no matter what its feelings about its trainer are." Calfrun was suddenly in a much better mood. This day just kept getting better.

* * *

A cave lay inlaid into the mountain, hidden by the close trees.

The ground rumbled inside the cave, and Xeno pulled himself out of the makeshift tunnel, shutting the hatch behind him. He shook, his spikes clacking loudly. Once he cleaned himself, he trudged off, deeper into the mountain.

He passed a series of tunnels and ladders, designed to trick anyone who came into the cave. He trudged past the ladders, to the end of the first cave. He picked at the ground, grumbling as he tried to find the next tunnel.

PING

Xeno dug out around the hatch with his claws, then popped the seal and hopped in. He slammed the tunnel hatch shut above him, plummeting himself into darkness.

He crawled through the tunnel, his spikes dragging along the roof of the hole and disturbing his tracks, disguising the fact anyone had ever passed through the tunnel.

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Calfrun

TheHiddenAssassin

Veralice

Xeno Major


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: **Why won't anyone review this? It's not terrible...

**Disclaimer: **Pokémon belongs to Nintendo and GAME FREAK

* * *

Tyler ended up tagging along with Janie while trying to comprehend the plot going on right now.

"So... those are quite the cast of characters we seem to have stumbled upon in Roi Rill, huh?"

Janie laughed and began leading him to the beach. "Yeah, it was too much for me to keep up with, so I just closed shop early. By the way, we're heading to my secret base. What your about to see is strictly confidential."

Mary nodded along to what Janie said, trying to act serious. She ran ahead of them to the far side of the beach where there was a small, wooden boat tied to a tree trunk. Janie untied it and began pushing it into the water. "I don't have any strong water Pokémon, actually Mary is my only Pokémon, but maybe someday I won't have to use this boat anymore. It's too dangerous to swim there."

She hopped into the boat when it was in the water and turned to Tyler. "Hop in."

* * *

"Shinx! Shinx!" Came a call. Wes looked to his right and noticed a man in a trench coat leaning over a blue and black bundle. Again the pokemon cried in dismay as the man kicked it.

"Useless Shinx!" He yelled. "Get in there!"

"Hold on everybody I'll be right back." Wes yelled. He ran to the little incident. "Hey! Buddy! Stop abusing the poor guy." He roared. The man looked at him.

"Shut up! Its not your Pokémon. So stop telling me what to do." The Shinx looked at the young rockstar. Fear clouded its eyes. "Go back to the stage and make your little noise up there. And unless you want a battle than I suggest you do."

"Then get out your Pokémon, cause you got one." Masamune strode in front of Wes and began to shake.

"Okay. Go Raichu." The trench coat threw his Poké Ball and out popped a Raichu.

"Rai-chu!" Grunted the tiny menace. Masamune shook more and began glowing , its psychic power growing.

"Raichu use thunder!" Electricity jumped into the sky and hurtled towards Masamune.

"Masamune grab Raichu and block its attack with itself." Masamune obeyed and flung its enemy into the volts. It didn't do much, but it was something. "Now throw him into the air than crash him down!" Wes commanded, and Masamune obeyed again. The Raichu gasped as its dog-sized body was crushed between the ground and an invisible force. Quickly Raichu released a electric bolt shocking the small psychic. This only caused the small creature to squeeze even harder, eventually tossing it back into the air. The Raichu let out one final noise before it fell silent. Not dead, just fainted.

"H-how?" The man stammered, retrieving the fainted mouse. Masamune began glowing. But he was glowing a white color. He was evolving. Wes couldn't look away, it was to dazzling.

"Kirlia" It called. Finishing its evolution.

"Lets get to the show!" Wes beamed. "Come on Shinx." He called. "You wanna good home?"

"Shinx!"

* * *

Michael was getting a little bored waiting for Wesley. The music was great and all, but it just wasn't the same without the rest of the band. He wondered where the rest of the famous rock band could be. With a shrug, he scribbled a note, handed it to Scar, and had the little Treecko crawl up to the stage and give the note to Aristar to give to Wes. It said,

_Sorry, Wes. I've really got to go. I've got this feeling something is going on around here that needs to be stopped. Hopefully I'll see you around and I can listen to your music another time. But until then, good luck with your music and with Aristar! ~Michael_

When Scar returned to Michael, Michael turned away from the stage and headed off in the direction the mysterious Vinn character had gone. Xero flew beside him, and Scar tagged along at his heel. Michael decided Breeze had had enough rest and could use some fresh air, so he pulled his Poké Ball from his belt and pressed the button to let Breeze out. The Tailow popped out in a beam of red energy and was soon flying high above them, scouting out the area.

Of all the characters Michael had met today, Wes and Janie seemed to be the most friendly — both toward humans and toward Pokémon. They let their Pokémon roam freely when they wanted to, and they treated them well. And they seemed to get along well with others, as did Mary and Aristar. But the other three people... The shady ones who always appeared to be up to no good...

Michael shifted his backpack to better support its weight and clicked a button in his running shoes. He had to see what Vinn was up to in that shipwreck. And soon.

Ryan ran upstairs and started destroying his room in search for the supposed closet that lie in his house. After kicking the PC out of the way (inadvertently injuring his toe) he found a door that led to his hidden closet.

* * *

Wes finished his show with his newest song. He hated to see his new friend go, but there was a thing about being friends, you usually caught up with each other at sometime. Shinx rested on his head throughout the whole show. After the whole after show crowd had left Wes left and retrieved his fallen bike. He zoomed back towards Burlain City. Maybe if he was lucky he could catch a Flying type and fly over to Snowpoint.

* * *

_Here goes something._ Ryan thought. Tugging on the door, he managed to open it (apparently it had not been used in years due to no one knowing about it.) with a bit of effort. Along with a cloud of dust, Ryan's Dratini shot out of the closet, Tackling Ryan to the ground. When the dust cleared, Ryan set the Dratini aside and looked around. In front of him was a marvelous pair of Running Shoes and an equally awesome backpack filled with various plot conveni-err- utilities that he could use in case the time arrived. He also saw 5 Ultra Balls, something he didn't think they could afford.

Without a word, Ryan put on his new shoes and backpack. Ryu (Dratini) followed behind, using its small scale weather manipulation abilities to float downstairs. Ryan hugged his mom once more before charging out of the door to complete his task of becoming a Pokemon Master...and hopefully finding his father.

* * *

Vinn strode back down the coast, tossing one of his new Poké Balls in his left hand as he went. Today's raid was successful and he had said his goodbyes to Team Phoenix and headed home, Zen sitting on his shoulder as usual.

Along the way he passed those two people...Tyler and that girl from the stand that didn't sell food. He ignored them and continued on.

Then he stopped suddenly.

SHould he have put up a security in that shipwreck? He had found all the information he needed, but Vinn couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to go wrong some how. Thinking quickly Vinn spun around and headed back toward the shipwreck.

Vinn sprinted into the large cave and glanced around. It was empty, good. Vinn sighed and began walking through the ruins, much as he had the first time. Finally he came back to the stone wall he found before.

"Soon...you WILL be mine." he stared at the Pokémon chiseled into the wall. "Rayquaza" Vinn reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. It had an eye shape on the front.

Vin set it down in the center of the room and turned to leave. THat should do as security. After all the trouble he had gone to steal it from Team Phoenix, it better be...

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere else:

"What is the status report?" came a mysterious, deep and slightly raspy (as if from atrophy) voice.

"Another team in the area has been researching Shadow Pokemon, I'm sure, sir. It's only a matter of time-" came the much weaker voice of an assistant, presumably a young adult male in his twenties.

"Time. It's always _Time_."

"Yes, Sir, but-"

"Years ago...That man...said I would become better in _Time_. I don't have time. You are to locate and secure all Shadow Pokemon and potential Shadow Pokemon related projects immediately."

"But, sir, if I-

"Enough. Dragonite, Hyper Beam." came the voice. It was angry.

"Ah! Sir, please-

A pair of red eyes appeared in the darkness of the area. They were the eyes of a Dragonite, one that had been cared for and loved but corrupted all the same. A large ball of energy appeared above the Dragonite's head, growing in strength and intensity...

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

TheHiddenAssassin

Xero

Veralice


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note:** This chapter might be the first to actually resemble Pokémon in any way...

**Disclaimer: **Yadda, yadda, yadda

* * *

Michael reached the beach just outside of Roi Rill Port fairly quickly. He sent Breeze to gather vines from the woods while Xero and Scar went to gather wood for a raft. While they were gone, Michael sat on a rock and tossed stones into the water, watching the waves ripple outward. Suddenly, one of Michael's pebbles stopped short in the water with a _clunk_. It had hit something. Something rose out of the water with a large lump on its head. It was a Horsea. But this Horsea looked different from most: it had black and white squares on the top of its head, making it look like a chess or checkers board.

Michael whistled loudly, calling for Xero. "Xero! Scar! Breeze!"

The Horsea glared at Michael. Angrily, the Horsea shot a Water Gun at Michael, hitting him in the face. Michael made a gurgling noise as the water filled his nose and mouth. He dropped to the ground to avoid the Water Gun and scrambled to grab something from his backpack. Horsea puffed out his cheeks and spit Acid at Michael. Rolling out of the way, Michael grasped what he was looking for in his backpack and threw it. The red and white Poké Ball hit Horsea (in the same place the stone had hit him), and Horsea was transformed into a ball of red energy.

Right at that moment, Breeze appeared from the forest and divebombed toward Michael, landing lightly on his shoulder. The Poké Ball wobbled on the ground as Horsea struggled to escape. The Poké Ball suddenly shattered, and Horsea escaped. Seeing this, Breeze took to the air, ready to fight.

"Breeze! Use Quick Attack!" Michael yelled.

Breeze disappeared. Without warning, Horsea was knocked backward, then forward again, falling face first into the sand of the beach. As if out of nowhere, Breeze was back on Michael's shoulder again, proudly juggling a bottle of Carbos with her talons. Michael threw another Pokéball at Horsea, and capturing process was repeated. Michael and Breeze waited, staring at the Pokéball. Xero and Scar burst from the forest right at that moment. They moved slowly toward their trainer, as if they were afraid any sudden move might prevent the capture of a Pokémon. But they had no need to worry. The Horsea was caught.

Michael stooped over and picked up the Poké Ball.

"Great job, Breeze! We caught a Horsea!"

(Would you like to give Horsea a nickname? Yes. What would you like to name Horsea? Checkers.)

Michael reached up and patted Breeze on the head. But Breeze suddenly began to shudder.

"Breeze, what's wrong?" Michael asked concernedly.

A white light shot out from Breeze, consuming the Tailow in seconds. Tailow was evolving!

"Breeze!"

Michael shut his eyes; the light was too bright. When the light disappeared, instead of his Tailow, a newly evolved Swellow stood on Michael's shoulder. Breeze hopped down to the ground, having trouble finding descent footing in the cramped space of Michael's shoulder.

"Swellow!" Breeze called.

Michael beamed. Now he had a Swellow _and_ a Horsea! This day was getting better and better.

-

Within seconds Ryan had grown tired. He was still relatively young, but never ran much due to his mother's constant traveling from region to region. He was thin, he was healthy, but he was definitely out of shape. All that aside, he had no bicycle, and as fast as his Running Shoes were, they were still _Running_ Shoes. The son of a researcher, Ryan always had some clever idea hidden in his mind.

"Ryu! Float ahead and use Ice Beam!" Ryan commanded, grabbing a nearby piece of bark from a large tree. He tied the laces of his shoes around the wood while Ryu sped along.

"Dra!" Ryu yelled, blasting the ground into a frozen wasteland.

"Perfect!" Ryan laughed. The wood under his feet slid along the frozen ground with ease, providing a much more efficient form of travel. Ryan pulled a map from his backpack and looked at what should be his first destination: Roi Rill.

Within moments he was approaching Roi Rill's port. He spotted someone else there and figured this could be his first challenge.

Michael turned away from his newly evolved Swellow when he heard someone approaching him. Whoever it was was breathing heavily. He must have been running. He saw a Dratini floating ahead of its trainer, who was skating on the ice Dratini had made with its Ice Beam.

_Hmm. That's an interesting idea,_ Michael thought.

"Can I help you?" Michael asked the newcomer.

Ryan eyed his potential opponent with caution. He had seen all of those Pokemon before; his mom's research had documented over 350 species of Pokemon and he had learned all of their strengths and weaknesses. It was really all he could do since he never got to train outside.

"My name is Ryan, and I want to battle. It's my first step in becoming a Pokemon Master." Ryan announced. Ryu floated back toward his trainer and went around his neck, staring at Michael.

"Pokémon Master, eh?" Michael said, raising an eyebrow. "That's a big goal. My name is Michael. I'd be happy to help you with your quest. Prepare yourself! Checkers! Go!"

Michael hurled a Poké Ball in front of him, and his new Horsea emerged in a beam of energy.

"Horsea!" Checkers squealed.

Michael sprayed a Potion on Checkers to heal his wounds from their earlier battle. Then he stepped back and allowed Checkers to hop forward. But Checkers decidedly wasn't a land creature (who would have known?), so he hopped into the water and waited for his opponent to make a move.

"Alright, let's go!" Ryan yelled. He put on his standard Pokemon Trainer's hat and said "Ryu, dive into the water and use Thunderbolt!"

Ryu, a naturally aquatic dragon Pokemon, obliged without hesitation, creating a small wave where it landed in the water. It began using its Thunderbolt attack in the water to zap Horsea out. He wasn't affected himself by the Thunderbolt due to his Dragon type.

-

Xeno skidded through the ice tunnel, the exhilaration of the route coursing through him like a rushing inferno.

The pitch black tunnel suddenly lit up, and Xeno groaned when he saw the bend in the ice slide - and the lack of railings.

Xeno reached out as he slid towards his doom, digging his right claw into the ice slide, changing his course rapidly. He changed course a little TOO rapidly, and almost slid off the other side!

Xeno breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the end of the tunnel approach. 'No more ice tunnels!' he thought.

Xeno stabbed both his claws into the ice behind him, slowing rapidly as he came to the end of the tunnel. He slowed, finally stopping a couple of feet from the end of the cave, the little door sticking out conspicuously. It would have been a real shame, he decided, if he died because of a door.

Xeno stood up, shook to remove the stray ice filings, and looked at the door. He sweatdropped anime-style as he looked at his claws.

WHAM!

WHAM!

WHAM!

WHA-SMASH!

Xeno stepped through the now-open doorway, into the shining daylight.

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Xero

Veralice

Xeno Major


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note:** A whole week without updating! And I break it with crap...

**Disclaimer:** Come on, this is two bad to be owned by Nintendo...

* * *

Tyler followed Janie absentmindedly. Those men from before...

"I think we should go back for them." he said suddenly. Archie barked in agreement. "I feel like something important is going to happen and we need to be there."

Tyler raced back to Roi Ril with Archie before Janie could respond. As it turns out, he was right to a degree. He could see smoke rising from the wreckage of the Phoenix Raid on the Aqua Base. But that wasn't what bothered him. No one liked Team Aqua. But no one really liked Team Phoenix either. If this was a successful raid, then Phoenix was closer to controlling Roi Rill.

"Dammit, we're too late Archie." Archie let out a low growl and sunk to the ground in a stance that suggested he was preparing to fight. Tyler followed hsi gaze and saw the man from before, Vinn, leaving a cave.

"Hey, Vinn!" he called. "What's going on here?"

Vinn looked up, startled. Seeing Tyler he put on his best fake-grin. "Ah, I'm not sure. I just got out here myself...." he looked at the smoke. "Say..isn't that Team Aqua's base?"

Zen waddled over to Tyler and gave him a curious look. "Abra?

"That must mean that Phoenix successfully raided Aqua's... Archie! Be polite!" Archie was still croouched down, now staring at Xen. "I'm sorry, he's usually very friendly. Archie! Be nice or I'll put you back in the Poke Ball." Archie sat back on his haunches and quit growling, but he never took his eyes off of the Abra.

"Phoenix?" Vinn looked startled. "That one team that no one knows much about?" he questioned. He called Zen back over, away from the growlith that was glaring at him. "Hmm that's interesting." Vinn muttered. "Well...I must be off. If you ever need anything, I live on that old tanker just off the shore." Vinn said.

With that Vinn and Zen walked away. When he was a sufficient distance away, Vinn grinned darkly.

Tyler turned to Archie. "Sorry about that, he gives me the creeps, too, but I couldn't let him catch on." He mused on it for a moment. "Yeah, he's definitly part of Phoenix. Every else you talk to wouldn't say that no one knows about it."

Archie gave him an in quizzitive look.

"I don't know what we're gonna do! Wait!" He reached into his pockets and produced Tallon's Poke Ball. In a flash of energy, a Zubat materialized in the air. "Tallon, I want to to follow that man. But be careful, he's got an Abra that has an attitude." Tallon screeched in agreement and flapped off.

"Now we need to tell Janie and the others, wherever they are..."

* * *

"Horsea!" Checkers squealed as Ryu's Thunderbolt shocked him out of the water. The attack was super effective, and Checkers flopped unconscious onto the shore. Michael stared in shock at his fainted Pokémon. That was a tactic he hadn't seen before. He would have to remember that one.

With a sudden determined look in his eyes, Michael held out his Pokéball and said, "Checkers, return!" Checkers disappeared into the Pokéball in a red beam. _Well, now I know he's got Thunderbolt, so Breeze and Xero are out of the question for this battle,_ he thought to himself. "Looks like it's up to you, Scar! Go get 'em!"

Scar plucked a blade of grass from the ground and stuck it in his mouth, then stepped forward nonchalantly.

"Use Absorb on the water to drain Ryu out!"

Having never used a move like this before, Scar focused all his energy on Absorbing the water. The water rose up into the air in a bubble, exposing Ryu on dry ground beneath the bubble.

"Now use Pound to hit the water and make your own Hydro Cannon!"

Scar jumped into the air and whipped his tail around, Pounding the bubble as hard as he could. Releasing his Absorb grip on the water, the entire bubble shot with deadly speed toward Ryu. Michael grinned at his clever idea, oblivious to the fact that Dragon type Pokémon are weak against Water attacks.

"Ryu!" Ryan exclaimed, watching as the attack hit the Dratini right on. It was a Water attack, which Dratini had little trouble with, but direct hits were still direct hits.

"Dra!" Ryu yelled, floating up into the air awaiting the next command.

"Hmm..." Ryan thought for a moment. The Treecko, though it didn't look like it, was indeed a Grass Pokemon. Resistant to Electric attacks...but weak against...

"Ryu! Charge toward him and use Flamethrower!" Ryu obliged happily once again, floating toward Scar and beginning to breathe fire.

"What!?" Michael said incredulously. "Scar! Quick! Use Dig!"

Scar clawed at the ground rapidly, throwing dirt into the air, some of it hitting Ryu as he approached, serving as a makeshift Sand Attack. Within seconds, Scar had disappeared below ground, nowhere to be seen.

Michael waited to see where Ryu would hit before he gave Scar another command.

* * *

Wes cleared the route to Burlain relatively easily. Sadly no Pokemon of the type he searched for could be found. Wes sighed, he could go look for the peculiar Bagon that Burlain was famous for. Well, it was also famous because of him, but the Bagon was his symbol of Burlain and him. It was gold, with white wings. It was the colors of a paladin. Well, the colors Wes pictured a paladin would be covered in.

"BAGON!" And with that Wes had his second crash of his life. Its not necessarily something Wes even noticed, some people said that he wanted to die, to see his mother again. But that's not correct. Wes didn't want to die, he just wasn't scared of it.

"Not again!" Wes yelled as his forward momentum kept going while the bike stopped completely on a gold and white head. He hit the ground flipped and stopped. Masamune, which Wes was no longer sure if it was a guy or a girl, held him up. "Aristar! Lets go get him! Lets make that symbol full!" Aristar laughed and got ready to battle. Ghost type versus a Dragon-type? He wondered how it would work out. "Shadow ball!" Aristar opened his mouth, a ball of black energy needled into place before him. It shot forward and nailed the Bagon in the back.

"Bagon!" The Bagon shook it off. It dealt out a normal amount of damage, but this Bagon was strong. Wes was determined to catch him. "Ba-Bagon!" Fire shot from the pipsqueak dragon. Aristar launched higher and Wes ducked down to avoid being set on fire. Bagon leaped into the air passing through Aristar, but he spun around and hit him with another blast of fire.

"Oh he's a strong one!" Aristar laughed maniacally.

"Aristar use Lick!" Aristar rushed forward against the fire. A tongue flapped forward and smacked the dragon. The fire stopped and down fell the Bagon. It flipped back on its feet ready for more. "He just doesn't give up! Okay, use Sucker Punch!" Aristar dove then disappeared. He reappeared behind Bagon and slammed into it. Still the little reptile got back up, worse for wear. It turned back and its claws began glowing. It rushed jumped then slashed Aristar with a Dragon claw. Aristar screamed in pain. It was a strong Bagon indeed. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, but we need to finish this quick."

"Okay. Dark Pulse." Aristar nodded. A pulse radiated forth and struck Bagon. The Bagon held firmly, but the attack continued. Eventually the Bagon listed to the ground. It wasn't done yet but it was weakened.

"Go Special ball!" The special ball was an invention of Wes'. It was tuned into one Pokemon type. Set by the user. It would be more effective against that type, but weaker against the other types. Bagon transformed into red energy and the ball closed. It shook once, twice...then a third and stopped all together. "Whew. We got him!" Wes sighed in relief. "I think I'll call you...Ragnarok. Go, Ragnarok!" The Bagon shot from the ball. The paladin-like Bagon collapsed to the ground from exhaustion. Wes leaned down and used a potion on it. It relaxed, then tackled Wes to then ground. "Gah!"

* * *

Xeno stumbled about in the bright daylight, the contrast between pitch black and pure daylight shocking him. He walked over his own two feet-claws- and finally tripped over an unseen rock, and tumbled. Unfortunatly for Xeno, he was at the top of a hill. How he was at the top of a hill after sliding DOWN a long ice-slide, he didn't know. But he knew was rolling downhill quickly - and painfully.

He rolled and rolled, his spikes unluckily NOT sticking in the ground as he rolled, only serving to increase his speed. As he tumbled he increasingly started hitting rocks, launching briefly into the air before plumeting downward to launch again.

When Xeno finally rolled to a stop, he was hard-pressed to stand straight, and started stumbling again, thankfully on flat land. He hit the ground with a bump, and saw two humans. Nearby, a Horsea and a Dratini were locked in battle.

"Anyone get the number of that Aggron?" Xeno moaned, his head slumped on the ground.

His vison slowly faded, blacking out the image of the battling pokemon.

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

TheHiddenAssassin

Xero

Veralice

Xeno Major

Xelwes


	11. Chapter 11

**I don't own Pokémon**.

* * *

Janie watched Tyler run off towards wherever the others were. She was still sitting in the small boat with Mary. Mary poked Janie and looked up at her. "I don't know what we should do, Mary. Whatever's going on here, it doesn't seem right. Maybe we should hide out into the secret base for a while. It'll be pretty hard for anyone to get in there."

And with that, Janie began to paddle her way over to an area surrounded by jagged rocks. She hopped off the boat when she pulled it over to an area behind some rocks so the boat would remain unseen. There was a small opening to the side that looked almost unnoticeable. She had to army crawl to get inside. Mary rolled after her. There were many different directions that branched out from the main tunnel, and unless you didn't know the right direction you'd get lost. Some tunnels lead to holes that dropped you into the ocean.

When Janie made it through the tunnel, there was a large open area at the end. It looked plain enough, but there were many water balloon guns set up on the ledges above her. It seemed amateur, but it was only a distraction. There were small pads that sent you sliding into a small opening in the ground filled with water. There was only one way to climb out, which was the way back, and the only way across was to hop on rocks leading the way. But some were fake and would sink.

If you managed to get past the the random falling rocks and trap doors, you could make it to a long set of stairs leading up to a large room, Janie's secret base. It was filled with rugs, chairs, and tables, along with some decorations. Janie went directly to a small computer on one table and turned it on. On it were different screens showing all the different parts of the area outside the base. She had many security cameras set up for emergency.

Mary played around with the few dolls she had while Janie reclined in her chair. It had taken years to perfect her base, but it was a masterpiece now. She just had to wait a bit to see what was up.

"Janie!" Tyler called into her secret base.

Janie heard someone's voice coming from the entrance. She checked her computer and saw that it was Tyler. She ran out her door and sprinted down the stairs. "Don't move! This place is booby trapped!"

Tyler froze midstride, one leg up in the air. "O-okay..."

* * *

Eric was walking through the town of Helios. Renegade, his Sableye, was jogging beside him. He waited impatiently. Where was she?

"Yolanda!" he called. _Where is she? We're supposed to be at headquarters in ten minutes!_ "Wraith! Go!" Eric threw a Poké Ball, and a green Duskull (yeah, it's a shiny Duskull), popped out. "Go find Yolanda." _I hope the raid was successful without us._

Yolanda was lagging behind Eric. The sight of her old home caused a wave of nostalgia to wash through her. But only for a moment. Just then a Duskull came floating by urgently. Wraith.

"Yes, yes. Tell Eric I'm coming."

Wraith returned to Eric with Yolanda's message. Eric sighed. He knew this place was special to Yolanda, having been raised here, but she had to learn when it was okay to reminisce and when it was time for action.

"Alright. Good job, Wraith. Return." He held out his Poké Ball, and Wraith went inside.

"Kshi!" Renegade said.

"Yes, I know," Eric responded. "We need to get going. But we can't go without Yolanda. I've got a duty to her as well as the Team."

"Bzzi!"

Eric smiled. "Yes, and to you too."

Yolanda sauntered over to where Eric was waiting. She carried with her an air of superiority, and a charm that generally caused man to swoon. Eric so far seemed immune to her femininity, but she never quit testing. But not today.

"Yeah, here I am. Remind me, what are we doing here again?"

"We're supposed to be scouting out the region," Eric said. "HQ said Magma found evidence that Aqua may have come through here with a new device. We've got a guy named Vinn who found the remains of a Rayquaza off the coast of Roi Rill Port. HQ believes the device will allow us to restore the Rayquaza and tame it for our own purposes. Our job..." He paused and looked at Yolanda, pointing at the volcano just outside the city, where Team Magma was rumored to have a base. "Our job is to make sure that Magma doesn't get their hands on the device. We may have an alliance with them, but who knows how strong that alliance is? If Magma gets the device, they may turn on us faster than you can throw a Poké Ball."

He started walking again, heading toward the volcano.

"Once we secure the area, we're to call in reinforcements to keep watch. Then we have to go back to headquarters for our next mission."

* * *

As the Phoenix personnel transport vehicles moved towards their next target, Calfrun sat and admired his new rank emblem, signifying him as an officer of Team Phoenix. He was looking forward to reporting to his new boss, Eric, right after this raid on Burlain City.

* * *

Yolanda smirked before following Eric. "Give me a few minutes with this Vinn character and I bet he'll tell me everything." She pushed her hair back.

"Yes, I'm sure he would," Eric said, hiding a smile. Yolanda always seemed proud to be able to seduce information out of any male they encountered. All but Eric. Somehow he was the exception to her charm. "But that would just be too easy," he said with a grin. He spotted a small girl running toward them with an Eevee tagging along, and his smile faded. "Looks like we've got company."

* * *

"Uhh... Janie? Can I move now?" Tyler was still frozen in place.

Janie ran ahead to the entrance, being careful of where she stepped, and pushed Tyler back slightly so he could put his foot down. "You have to follow my steps exactly. If you step in front of the water balloon censors, they could fire and push you onto a slide mat which leads to that hole over there."

She grabbed his wrist and began leading him carefully through the trail to her base. She paused before each new area to describe the traps so he would be prepared, until they finally made it to the long flight of stairs leading to her secret base. Mary was hopping on the windowsill of a small, circular window. "Up there is my secret base. We can talk there."

"I don't need to go in, I was just coming to tell you that Phoenix and Magma attacked an Aqua base over in Darangonind. I also suspect that Vinn is a Phoenix agent."

Janie froze when she opened the door. "So that's what it was. I thought something might be going on. That's why I came here, but what can we go. I've rarely battled, and they probably have _loads_ of strong Pokémon that they've stolen. All I have is Mary. That's why I'm hiding out here until I think it's safe."

Tyler tore free of her grasp, being careful not to step on a trap. "Do you want Phoenix or Magma to get a hold of this city? Do you want them to own Novien?"

Janie looked back at her base, then at Tyler. She didn't know what to do. She would probably be the weakest one, but then she remembered her parents. They were still at home. Why didn't she bring them along. "I...I'll go. At least to make sure my parent's are safe. After that...I don't know."

"Good. Come on!" Now he pulled her along, with Archie barking at his heels and Mary bouncing behind. Just then Tallon swooped in.

"Did you find where he went?" Tallon nodded furiously. "Good. You can show us soon."

Janie ran with Tyler to the outside of the base, but then she stopped. "Wait, how did you get here? I had to take a boat."

* * *

Aristar, Eliandas(Shinx), Masamune, and Ragnarok all followed Wes back towards Burlain. They returned to an empty house. James left a note saying that he had to return to Kanto.

"Looks like you guys get to share his room." Wes said as they entered. He sat on the couch and turned on the TV.

"Today an Aqua hideout was raided. Team Magma and Team Phoenix are believed to be responsible." Wes changed the channel.

"Looks like we missed the action." Wes rubbed his shoulder and winced. It was bruised. Wes sighed again. He wanted to go home, he missed the cold weather, but the memories hurt to bad there.

Wes didn't have much time to rest though. Only moments after he arrived in Burlain, Phoenix and Magma's next raid began. Within minutes the city was ablaze. Calfrun watched as Xadc crushed anyone who dared stand in its way. Exia and U§ƒen, his Umbreon that had recently undergone a forced evolution, proved to be a formidable team as well. Then Calfrun looked in disgust at hid Piplup, Bidoof, and Starly, which were barely managing to survive.

Calfrun led his small group of Phoenix peons into town hall, and without hesitation killed the mayor. He picked up the microphone used to broadcast announcements through the city.

"Attention citizens. This city now belongs to Phoenix and Magma."

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

Xero


	12. Chapter 12

Vinn stood out on the front deck of his ship, pokeballs in hand. "They should have finished that raid by now.." Vinn thought out loud. While it was true he was not OFFICIALLY a member of Team Phoenix, many people in the organization (himself included) still considered him an officer to the Team.

And it was fine with Vinn to let them think that. "Alright Zen. I want you and Scyyn to battle for a bit, we need to get you trained up." he said. Both Pokémon nodded and walked out to the center.

Vinn turned from the fight and held out a small Poké Ball. "Okay, Ixxen, your turn." he muttered. A small Eevee popped out of the ball, blinking curiously.

"Eevee?"

Vinn held up the lightning stone he had stolen from the Aqua vault and leveled it at Ixen. "This wont hurt a b, buddy." he said. There was a flash of light as the stone activated. When it dissipated, instead of an Eevee, a Jolteon stood in its place. Vinn nodded in satisfaction.

"Now....to train these new guys." Vinn held up the Poké balls containing his new dragon-types.

-

Wes stormed out of the house. Masamune threw three grunts into another group. He fought through the city carrying whatever he needed and could carry. By the time he had exited the city all 5 of them were exhausted. Battling through the city had turned out that not only Pokemon needed to battle. Or the grunts just pissed him off.

"Everyone when we return to Burlain, we will have our own Team. But we won't be criminals. We'll finish off Team Phoenix and Team Magma. They'll regret this."

"I agree." came a voice from behind Wes. "I am Serilay, a former member of Team Aqua. Me and my friends back at our hideout were at Darangonind when it was attacked... After that, I quit Aqua and my aforementioned friends and I have been trying to start a team to stop this madness. If you truly wish to help, come to this location." He handed Wes a slip of paper, then walked away without waiting for a response.

"Team Paladin. A knight who fights for justice. We will be Paladins." He looked at the paper. "Before we go there, I know of some people to ask to join. To Roi Rill." He turned and ran his Pokémon following.

-

Alianna sat looking at the road with her head in her hands. She wished she could just run off down that road and never turn back. But she could never leave her family, they needed her. And her brothers... what would they do without her?

She sighed.

"Eevee!" Bartimus hopped up in her lap and snuggled her face.

"No, I wasn't thinking of running again." She lied.

"Eevee."

"Soon I'll be able to leave, but not now... Yolanda?" Down the road, almost out of sight, a dark haired woman stood a moment before walking away. "Bartimus, that looked like Yolanda."

"Eevee?"

"C'mon. We're going after her."

-

Eric turned away from Yolanda and took out his PokéNav.

"Phoenix HQ, this is Eric," he said into the device. "Yolanda and I are going to be a little late. We're still in Helios securing the area, and we've got some company. But it should be no trouble. Just a girl. We'll be there in twenty — thirty minutes tops. Eric, out."

He replaced his PokéNav on his belt and turned toward the girl coming toward them.

"Can I help you?"

-

"Yolanda!" Alianna called. "It IS you! Where've you been? We've been worried. Who's this?"

"Alianna... go home. You're gonna get hurt if you come with me. Go home."

"But... Yolanda..." Alianna teared up.

"GO!" Shadow Claw burst form his Poke Ball and swiped at Alianna, sending her spinning away. "Let's go, Eric."

Confused, Eric took a lingering look at the girl's Eevee, then turned away from Alianna and walked toward the volcano.

"You know that girl?" he asked Yolanda as they began the climb to the base of the volcano.

"She's my sister. So stay away from her...or her Eevee..."

"Ah," Eric said, understanding. "Got it." They were now approaching the volcano. Signs along the path revealed that the volcano was called Mount Solaris. "So you've lived here in Helios for a while. What do you know about Solaris and the Magma base? All I know is what HQ taught me as a trainee: it's not a major base, so it's pretty well hidden, and they get a lot of their Fire Pokémon from the inside the volcano. Anything else I should know before we start closing off the area?"

"Hmm..." Yolanda put her hands on her hips in thought. Shadow Claw reached up and tapped his Poke Ball, retreating back inside. "Well, its not very active, the base I mean. In my whole life here, we only saw two Magma Grunts. The Volcano occasionally rumbles, but never erupts. Mostly Numel, Camerupt, Slugma, and Magcargo live here. Some Vulpix live in the surrounding ash fields. Also, this is one of the few regions where Fire stones are rapidly produced by the earth. Other than that its your basic Magma base."

"Fire stones..." Eric murmured. "Hmm... That's interesting. I'm sure HQ would like to know that." He took a turn on the path they were following. They would soon be walking off the main path that led up the volcano. They were headed in a different direction, toward a cave that would give them access to the Magma base. "Those two Grunts. What were they up to when you saw them? Were they up to anything out of the ordinary? You know, for your average Team Magma member?"

"Remind me again why we're at a Magma base." Calfrun said, approaching the two. "I'm Calfrun, by the way, I was sent here to assist you."

"Hello, Calfrun. I'm Eric, and this is Yolanda. We're here to get information from Team Magma about a certain device they've discovered is in Aqua's possession. We are to find the current whereabouts of Team Aqua and secure the Magma base. We don't want any members of Team Magma taking the device before we get to it. It's much too powerful to be allowed to be used by either Magma or Aqua. Once we've closed off the area, we're to call in reinforcements and head to HQ for briefing for our next mission."

-

Nicole stood at the edge of a cliff on Mt. Solaris and looked over the small town called Lavatown. Edana, her Vulpix, sat beside her. She rubbed against her leg after a few moments, and Nicole knelt down to pet her. "So what should we do today, Edana? The Fire Fighters are having another meeting today. Should we go?"

Edana hopped onto Nicole's lap and touched her face with her paw. Nicole laughed and scratched Edana behind her ear. "You want to go into the hot springs, don't you?"

Edana nodded, and Nicole scooped the little Vulpix up and began walking down a trail that led to the town

-

"Janie, which way is your parents house?" Tyler asked her.

Wes slid to a stop in Roi Rill's market. Tears clouded his face as he remembered every suppressed memory of his mother's death. He remembered exactly who did it, when, and what Team they belonged to. He slouched against a building.

_Sssssssssh_ Rain poured over his hoodie. The hood remained over his head. His pokemon were silent.

"Wessss..." Aristar said quietly.

"Bagon"

"Kirl..."

"Shinx" Each Pokemon said, everyone sad. The water on his face was as much from the rain and tears. If someone were to look at him they'd think he had a cold and that he was soaked.

"Team Phoenix...will...die."

Tyler spotted Wes and his Pokemon as he rode into the market. Just then a steady rain began to fall. "Wesley! Over here! Its us, Tyler and Jaine!"

We looked up. Tyler called to him. But Wes couldn't move. He didn't want to. every memory of his mother flashed through his mind. The good, the bad, the completely pointless. He left Snowpoint and the girl he loved so that he would forget. But now he knew that you couldn't run. And to make a good life for yourself you had to fight for it. You had to take the good and the bad in stride.

Tyler and Jainie walked over to where Wes sat on his bike. "Hey...Wes? What's wrong?"

Wes stood.

"I'm going to destroy Team Phoenix." His hood covered his face. Tyler couldn't seen his reddened eyes. "I will make my own Team. Team Paladin. And with that Team I will kill they that murdered my mom, and took Burlain." Wes closed his hands, his hands started to bleed from clenching to hard. "Will you join me?"

Tyler squeezed Janie's hand unconsciously. "Yeah... yeah I think so. Jainie?"

"If it's okay." Serilay said, having just arrived in Roi Rill, "We would like to join Team Paladin as well." With him he had five of Aqua's best- the only known survivors of the Phoenix incident."

"Yes. Just remember, no crimes are to be committed in Team Paladin's name. If I hear that you committed them...I will come for you." Wes had changed. He was more serious. He could still be the old careless Wes, but he had this side now. "Remember that and you won't learn what the wrong side of my anger is like."

"that was fast." Tyler noticed. "Team Paladin... how 'bout just 'Paladin'? 'Team' reminds me of Phoenix."

"Yes, I see what you mean. Well Tyler, would you like to be a commander? Janie, if you join would you like this position also? Serilay if you would? You three, I hope, will be my commanders. We must get stronger. So that we can accomplish our goals. We may have different reasons why we want what we want. But in the end we strive for the same goal. We want to protect, to get revenge, to prevent. Team Phoenix has threatened what we love, and that has set a fire in us that will not be extinguished. Only we can extinguish that fire. Such a passion should be acted on so that we can help the world from such a dark malicious force. We can't let them keep going on doing what they want. Because if we do...everything we live for will crumble." Wes spoke with conviction, so much that a few more men crowded around and began cheering. They were the first of many, and soon many more would join.

Tyler only shook his head. "No. No commanders, no ranks. That gives us power. We aren't a power hungry group. We're friends, friends with a common purpose: the elimination of Team Phoenix. We are united together, but not by rank or skill. We will stick together because we want to. We will all contribute to discussion freely. No ranks."

"Without some authority we will would be disorganized. We need some to direct a group." He did not agree that there should not be commanders. If not leaders, then there would be no way to keep everyone together. No one would be on track.

"Not if we stick together... but you're right." He sighed. "How about this: after we get rid of Phoenix, Paladin disbands, eliminating any temptation to exert any power we might obtain."

"Yes. We should do that. We are Paladin. We will rip apart Phoenix." Wes was excited. He was going to have his revenge. "We must train."

-

"Good." he said. Inwardly he smirked. Those men in Phoenix had thought there was only the remains of a Reyquaza on that tablet. Vinn was content to let them think that. But he had found the truth.

He would let them capture the great dragon-type...but it would be Vinn who took the prize in the end.

His watched beeped. "Ah...guess I better head over to Phoenix base and check in. I DO wish to talk with Calfrun again." he said. "Scynn, Ixxen, guard the base"


	13. Chapter 13

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter 13

* * *

Vinn was walking into the town of Burlain, now under Phoenix occupation. "Hmmm, nicely done lads." Vinn said to himself. Vinn ignored the injured people moaning around him and continued to look around obliviously. "Yes, nice work indeed...."

-

As Calfrun, Eric, and Yolanda arrived at the entrance to the base, a Magma officer stepped out. "Hello," he said, "I am Zac. I was told that you wanted to ask Team Magma some questions. Please follow me." With that, he led them down through hallways crowded with people and fire Pokémon, and into a room with a desk and four chairs. Zac sat in one of the chairs, on the other side of the desk from the other three, and said, "We hold no secrets from our allies - ask away."

"Thank you, Zac," Eric said as they walked through the halls of the Magma base. He looked at the various Fire Pokémon in curiosity, as did Renegade. "I've been informed that you have some information about Team Aqua's current location. I've also heard of a special device they've gotten a hold of called the Regenerator. I know Aqua plans to use the Regenerator to resurrect fossilized Pokémon, but also that they have not succeeded in locating any such Pokémon. We, on the other hand, have found a rather impressive fossil. Do you know where Aqua is keeping the device? Team Phoenix would greatly appreciate your cooperation on this endeavor."

"Ah, Aqua..." Zac said. "What few survivors there are move frequently, though now we believe they are in Roi Rill. We have dispatched a small force to deal with them, so you shouldn't worry about it. As for the Regenerator..." He led them into another, much larger room. In it was a massive device, its base area being easily over nin thousand square feet. "We do not have any fossils," Zac said, "so it really doesn't do much for us. The technology we've discovered within it, however, has revolutionized our own machine-making."

"It's magnificent!" Eric exclaimed. "It's more impressive than I had imagined. You say it has revolutionized your machines? May I take a look at what you've developed so far? I would be very interested in seeing the Regenerator's technology in action." There was something hidden in his voice. A secret plan. He did well disguising his intent, but he was quite certain Renegade and Yolanda would be able to detect the hint in his voice, having traveled with them for so long.

"Certainly." Zac said, and lead them into an adjacent room of approximately the same size. "This", he said, pointing at some collar-looking devices, "is a power chain - A sort of collar for Pokémon that enhances their powers. It forces complete loyalty to the trainer, which is helpful when looking to evolve a Pokémon that only evolves when it likes its trainer."

"This," he moved to the next set of devices, "is a hyper cannon - A special insert that is placed on the inside of a Pokémon's mouth. It creates artificial Hyper Beams that don't have to be recharged."

"Finally, we have the all stone - It's pretty much self-explanatory. It's a stone that can work as any stone for any type of evolution. The user decides what type of stone it will work as."

"Fascinating," Eric said. He made mental notes on each of the devices, carefully examining their intricate detail and designs. Unknown all but the head of Phoenix, Eric had an extraordinary memory. He could take one look at a design and rebuild it perfectly, even improving it in some cases. But he had kept his even more impressive ability to himself, even hiding it from the team leader: he knew how to take various designs and combine them. Now, even if Magma refused to hand over the Regenerator, he would be able to build one for Team Phoenix himself.

"Now, Zac," Eric said. "What do you plan to do with the Regenerator if you have no fossils? Would it be impolite to ask you to give—er... loan the Regenerator to Phoenix? I know someone who has made a great discovery, and that device would be most helpful in our pursuits."

"That's... ah..." Zac fumbled around for the right words. "I'm afraid I can't decide upon that - you're going to have to speak with someone much higher up than I am." He knew that these "allies" were up to something, but he wasn't entirely sure what.

"I see," Eric muttered. "Could you be so kind as to take me to your leader, then? I would very much like to do some more research on the Regenerator. It's a wonder Team Aqua and all its dull-minded Grunts were able to come up with something of this caliber."

Zac was getting tired of these Phoenix guys' semi-obvious attempts at discovering the inner workings of Team Magma. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to schedule an appointment." He said, and led them to the exit. "We of Team Magma are open to giving you any information you need in order to maintain good relations. Goodbye." He closed the door. The information they needed to maintain good relations... But nothing more. Phoenix should be kept in the dark as much as possible.

"I see," Eric said, interpreting Zac's silence to mean that he would not take them to Magma's leader. "Very well, then. We'll be on our way. It was nice doing business with you." He turned away and headed out of the cave, not waiting for the others. He could be very impatient when he didn't get his way. But it didn't matter. He knew what he needed to.

And two diamond eyes sparkled from above Zac, awaiting a chance to find the plans for the Regenerator.

-

Michael looked over at Roi Rill Port and saw a small group standing together. They seemed to be discussing banding together to defeat Team Phoenix. Remembering what Professor Birch had said, he glanced back at the battlefield, where Ryu and Ryan appeared to be frozen in time, then looked back at the group.

"Hey! Count me in!" he called to them.

Janie looked from person to person, feeling the atmosphere change as their determination grew. It was all happening so fast, but could she really do something like this? A weak shop keeper with only one Pokémon that still hasn't realized that it's evolved? She looked at each person carefully now. They all seemed like normal people, well not completely normal, but not as powerful as the trainers she had seen pass through the port. Maybe she could be like them.

"I'll join, but tell me, has anything happened around here while I was gone. My parents are still up at the house."

"Is anyone here able to create some symbol for us? So that those who see it know who we are." Wes called out. Aristar began to float around the battle giggling as the battle progressed. Bagon, however was itching to interfere.

-

Vinn decided to head to Magma base...for some strange reason. As he headed out of town he saw Tyler, Wes and whoever else was in their little freedom fighter gang. "Ohai! he called. "Lovely weather isn't it?"

Serilay turned to Vinn and recognized him instantly. "You!" He called out his Piplup, his only remaining Pokémon after the incident. "I watched you kill several of my friends and comrades." The Piplup started hopping around, getting excited as there appeared to be a battle immanent. "I am going to make sure that you aren't able to do that to anyone else!!!"

-

Nicole had headed down the mountain to Lavatown, a small place next to Mt. Solaris(right?) where some trainers stopped before heading up the mountain. There was a cable car not too far up the mountain from the trail, and the town was in charge of it.

Nicole headed strait for the Pokémon Center, knowing her grandmother would be at the end of the cable car line selling lava cookies, and went through the back door. There was a small trail that led to the hot springs through there. Nicole tossed Edana in and sat on the edge, rolling up her jeans and taking off her boots to soak her feet. Edana paddled and splashed around playfully. The few people that were in there laughed at the overjoyed Vulpix and would occasionally pet it if she swam up to them. The hot springs was where Edana was happiest. It was actually where Nicole had found her. She had been a wild Vulpix that had wondered into town and fallen into the hot springs, but no one could coax her out. Nicole had been the one to actually go into the hot springs and catch her.

Nicole noticed one of the members from the Fire Fighters club and waved. It was John, one of the officers. "You're not skipping the meeting, are you John?"

John waved her comment away and laughed. "It's just another training session. They won't care if you skip this one."

Nicole laughed and played with the little pin on her jacket, the Fire Fighters pin. She always thought the name was ironic, but she didn't complain. "When are we going to head into the caves to catch some Pokémon?"

"Hey, if you want to go into those caves, be my guest. You're always in there anyways. I don't know why you haven't caught anything yet."

Nicole sighed and scratched Edana behind her ear when she swan up to her. "Yeah, maybe later."

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Nicool

Calfrun

TheHiddenAssassin

Xero


	14. Chapter 14

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter 14

* * *

Since the other members of Paladin had stopped talking, Serilay watched the battle with interest.

-

Ryan smirked a bit while Ryu shook the sand from his face. "Digging underground to escape the heat. Clever move...Perhaps I should help you escape it more!" Ryan laughed at his cleverness. "Ryu, Ice Beam the ground. Make it cold enough to chill that Treecko out!"

"Ry!" Ryu yelled. A ball of energy appeared above his head before rays of energy blasted the ground, slowly turning the lovely soil into permafrost.

Scar suddenly emerged from the hole he had created, shivering.

"Scar! Use Pound!" Michael yelled. "Quick! Before Ryu can make a move!"

Scar jumped up, rubbing his arms to heat himself up, and flipped, slamming his tail down on Ryu hard.

"Ryu!" Ryan yelled. "Are you alright?" he asked. Ryu's speed (and the fact that this was his first real battle) made it so that he wasn't used to taking hits.

"Dra. Dra!" Ryu yelled! He shook himself, a sign of perseverance.

"Alright! Ryu, go into the water and use Twister as hard as you can!" Ryan commanded.

"Dra? Drati?!" Ryu exclaimed. He wasn't able to understand what Ryan had planned or if it would work.

"Just trust me, okay?" Ryan said. Ryu did; he had known Ryan for years now and even though this was their first official battle, he knew Ryan would never steer him wrong.

Ryu followed his order, diving into the water and using Twister. A small twister began forming underwater, creating a whirlpool-esque effect.

"Harder! Just a little more!" Ryan said.

"Dra!" Ryu replied. He focused more of his energy into the Twister; his effort began to show as the Twister rose out of the water and slowly approached the shore. A huge water storm approached them all...

"Dra!" Ryu said. Ryu was wondering if this technique was safe, but followed orders nonetheless.

"Alright! Now, use Thunderbolt and Ice Beam on the Twister!" Ryan laughed. His technique was undoubtedly ridiculously dangerous, but he wanted to win.

"Dra...Drati!" Ryu replied. The twister grew larger as it approached Scar, Michael and Ryan and the Thunderbolt and Ice Beam added to its deadliness. It was now no longer a twister, but a huge hail storm with lightning, ready to take down Treecko...and both trainers.

-

Janie gasped when she saw the storm approaching the shore. The town was right behind them, and her house was just beyond the gate. They had gotten a house close to the beach, but now the storm was deadly close to it. Her parents were still inside. "NO!"

Janie ran away from the others and sprinted towards the house, but she would have to pass the storm to get there. She didn't hesitate, and kept going. She had told Mary to stay put with the others, and she helplessly watched her owner run off.

Vinn remembered that the was still standing with the group. "Well then...I suppose I had better go secure my ship-ah I mean house. Arrivederci!" he called, leaving.

-

"Uh oh," Michael said. "Ryan, this is getting out of hand! Call Ryu off! Scar, return! Go, Breeze! Use Double Team, then Quick Attack! Circle the Twister in the opposite direction it's spinning to slow it down!"

Breeze obliged, using its new speed. Breeze's mien shifted, and suddenly, a dozen copies of Breeze were flying around the Twister Ryu had made. They shot around the Twister at top speed, dodging the hail and lightning. Pretty soon, the Twister was dying down.

Ryan looked around, surveying the damage he could have caused.

~Must...win. But at any cost?~ Ryan thought to himself before the answer came to him.

"Ryu! Before the Twister dies completely, use Thunderbolt and Ice Beam on it! Strike each and every copy of that Swellow!" If both attacks hit Swellow the damage could perhaps go beyond fainting. Ryan, deep inside himself, hoped that didn't happen.

"Drati!" Ryu yelled. Balls of energy appeared above his head before shooting into the weakened Twister.

Serisay's Piplup slammed into Ryu, knocking it into the ground. Serisay yelled at Ryan, "That's enough! call it off!"

"This is a one on one battle! Stay out of this!" Ryan yelled. He was going to win; his uncertainty about how he would do so was now behind him. "Ryu! Let the storm take care of the Swellow. Thunderbolt the Piplup!" Ryan commanded.

"Dra? Dratini..." Ryu said. He wasn't up for attacking a Pokemon who was looking out for the interest of others, especially one as innocent as a Piplup.

"Just do it!" Ryan yelled over the dying storm. He had inherited his father's motivation for victory, it seems.

"Dra..." Ryu said, having no choice but to obey. A ball of energy appeared over his head before shooting beams of electricity toward the Piplup.

Wes ran to Ryan before any answer came to him.

"Hey, watch out. If you do something like that you could kill a Pokemon. There is no reason to ris an innocent Pokemon's life like that. Even in war a person must consider the life of the enemy Pokemon. A criminal may control an innocent Pokemon. Remember they are sentient too." Wes lectured Ryan.

Janie ducked under different bolts to try and make it across. The storm had died down, but it was still pretty powerful. She felt bad for the Pokémon in battle, but she had to reach her house. If the storm continued, it could seriously damage it. It was only a small, weak house.

_Innocent...Life_ The words flew through Ryan's head for a moment. "Ryu, stop your attack! Quickly before someone is hurt!" Ryan exclaimed. Ryu obliged all too happily...or at least it would have. While Ryu can use combination of attacks to create devastating weather, he could not as easily reverse them.

"Dra! Dratini!" Ryu yelled. He needed help, and quickly.

"Um... Help, please!" Ryan laughed, rubbing his head thoughtfully.

"BAGON!" Ragnarok understood completely before Wes said anything. Its claws glowed bright as it leaped into the air. It began spinning deflecting the electricity. Then quickly dispelling the twister. The ice struck Ragnarok. knocking him back to the ground. It was unconscious but he would live.

Breeze kept flying around the Twister, steadily slowing it down.

"Xero, use Hyper Beam on the Twister!" Michael commanded.

"_Pshu!_"

Xero charged up a ball of light between its... whatever you call those hand things Beedrill has. Hyper Beam blasted at the Twister, shooting completely through the storm. Breeze flew directly below the Hyper Beam, continuing to slow the Twister below where the Hyper Beam had destroyed the storm.

"Scar! Use Quick Attack and help Breeze!"

Scar took off running in the same direction as Breeze. The storm was now slowing at a greater rate.

"Keep it up, guys!" Michael encouraged. "It's almost gone!"

"Thanks, guys! Alright, Ryu! Finish the storm off! Use Twister in the opposite direction!" Ryan yelled.

"Dra!" Ryu exclaimed, circling around in the air. A Twister was created with just enough power to cancel out what remained of the previous storm. The two storms collided head on (though storms don't have heads) causing each other to dissipate completely.

Michael sighed in relief.

"Well, I think that's enough for one day, don't you?" he said to Ryan. He looked at Xero, Breeze, and Scar, who were all exhausted and panting on the ground. "Hey, why don't we go get something to eat?" He turned to look at Wes. "Weren't you saying something about starting a team to fight Team Phoenix? We can discuss that over a couple burgers down at the Pokémon Center."

He unclipped three Poké Balls from his belt and had Xero, Scar, and Breeze return to them to rest. Then he started off toward the Pokémon Center, pausing after a few steps to look back and make sure the others were following him.

"Ryu, return!" Ryan said, even though the Dratini had nothing to return to. Instead it leisurely floated back toward its trainer.

"Dra...Dra..." Ryu panted, obviously tired from the struggle. He wrapped himself around Ryan as a sign of affection and tiredness before closing his eyes. Ryan rubbed his head before saying "There, there, Ryu. Get plenty of rest." Inside his head, Ryan was wondering if he should record the battle as a victory or a loss. He decided it would be tactful to not ask.

"Well, that was exciting... heh..." Tyler laughed nervously. "What are your names?"

"Well," Seresay said in response to Tyler's question, "I am Seresay, leader of this small group of Team Aqua survivors." he motioned towards his companions. "We have decided to give up our evil ways with a new goal of eliminating Team Phoenix and getting revenge on the bastards who did this."

Tyler shrugged. "K."

Then Vinn jumped in randomly again. "Hai gaiz lolol can I join you?"

"I'm Ryan, an aspiring Pokemon master. Sorry for the...incident...Heh." Ryan chuckled nervously. Ryu opened one of his eyes for a moment and laughed as well before going back to sleep. Ryan thought it best to not tell them about his second goal in finding his father.

And Seresay repeated what he did last time Vinn randomly appeared.

"I'm Michael," Michael said, ignoring Vinn who probably shouldn't be there if he wanted to live. "I'm just a traveler. I like to explore the woods of the different regions of the world. And it looks like I chose a good time to be here, since you might be needing some help."

And Vinn ignored Seresay like before. "So how about them Mudkipz?"

"Mudkipz?"

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

TheHiddenAssassin

Xero

Veralice


	15. Chapter 15

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter 15

* * *

"Go! Fang! Wraith!"

Eric threw two Poké Balls, and a Mightyena and a Duskull emerged from them.

"Grrrraaow!"

"Duuussskuullll."

"Fang, use Odor Sleuth. Track down those Aqua scum. Wraith, go back inside and take over for Renegade. I need him out here with me. Oh, and while you're at it, get Yolanda and Calfrun out here."

The two Pokémon obeyed and hurried to do their assigned tasks. Fang stuck his nose to the ground and started sniffing for any sign of Aqua's presence. Wraith faded out of view so that only his glowing eyeball could be seen, then phased through the walls of the cave to find Yolanda and Calfrun, then Renegade.

Eric walked off the trail a little ways and sat down on a large rock. An inactive volcano. Team Aqua. A device that could restore fossils to life. How did the pieces fit together? He set aside all else and focused on this puzzle that lay before him.

-

Wes plopped down on the Pokemon center's couch.

"We are forming an anti-terrorist group, if that's how you view the two teams, called Paladin to destroy the Phoenix and Magma teams. Before we start to execute any plan we need to be at full power. If there is anyway they can get to us through a weak member than we need to make that weak point into one hell of a trainer." Wes hadn't lost any of his determination. Who would when you had tasted loss and it had destroyed your family? The four Pokemon of Wes' began bugging Nurse Joy. Mischievous little devils, huh?

Michael returned from the main desk with his fully recovered Pokémon. He let Xero and Scar out but left Breeze and Checkers in their Pokéballs. Breeze preferred the free outside air than being inside, and Checkers... well, Checkers didn't like to be out of the water.

"Well, Wes, we do need to train. I agree with that. But from what I know of Team Magma from Hoenn, they have a lot of really strong trainers. It'll take more than just strong Pokémon to beat them, let alone Team Phoenix. They have Grunts by the hundreds. All we can do is get as many trainers and strong Water Pokémon as we can. I don't know that much about Phoenix, though. Can anyone fill me in? Like, what types of Pokémon do they use mainly?"

Vinn answered. "They use Mudkipz! of course!"

Michael glared at Vinn.

"Shut up." Then he looked at Adam. "Make a post that actually develops plot." Then, turning back to Wes and the others, "As I was saying, we need to recruit. After all, this small handful of people we have here isn't going to be enough. I hate to say it, but we may need all of Team Aqua's help."

Vinn sighed. "Okay then...you asked for it." He said. He reached into his pocket and slowly withdrew.....a pack of gum. "I WOULD LIKE TO JOIN YOU GAIZ."

He thought for a moment. "No seriously. I'm only on Team Phoenix because it suits my interests."

Anyway... to answer Michael's question, Seresay said, "From what I saw during the incident, Phoenix appears to be indiscriminate in they're Pokémon types. I saw several trainers who had no two Pokémon of the same type."

"Yeah. Its pretty random." Vinn said, inserting himself into the conversation. "The next person to ignore me gets free tickets to a Jonas Brothers concert!"

And with that Piplup began to nom on Vinn's hand.

Ryan sat down in a chair rather than pace like the other NPCs in the Pokemon Center, thinking for a moment.

"Why are we just sitting here? We won't get anywhere by discussing their Pokemon. We all use Pokemon of differing types as well, so there's no doubt we have something to counter their Pokemon." Ryan said, slightly annoyed. Ryu woke up and fired a Flamethrower into the air. As a Dragon Pokemon, he wasn't very fond of the cold. The room slowly became warmer.

Then Vinn began to omnom on Piplup.

-

Jania, who had been at the small door to her fence when the storm had ended, had decided to go inside anyways. She still had to tell them that she would be leaving. She watched the others walk towards the Pokémon Center before going inside her own house. Her mom was sitting on the couch while folding clothes. "Oh, Janie, you're home early. Did you close up the stall?"

Janie smiled and stood behind the couch, watching her mom. "Yes, mom. Where's dad?"

"Oh, he's working on some new products, as always. Try the basement."

Janie walked over to the basement door and tip toed down the stairs. "Dad?"

"I'm over here!" His voice sounded muffled and far off. "In the back."

Janie went over towards the back of the basement.

Janie saw her dad sitting at his desk fiddling with some new product. "Another invention?"

Her dad remained focused on his work, only nodding to her. "Yes, it's an alarm system. It will tell you exactly what comes across it, and maybe give you some information about it."

"Sounds interesting.................Hey, dad, you know how a lot of trainers leave when they're my age?"

-

Tyler eyed Vinn, then turned to Archie. "I know we don't like him, but he's given us no reason not to trust him... guess we'll just have to put up with him." Then he noticed a Tentacool that had been dropped off by Ryu's Twister attack. It looked beaten.

"Awesome." He threw a Poke Ball, caught it, and named it Terrance."

"Sweet. I got a Tentacool guys!" he shouted.

Vinn nodded. "K...." then he snapped his fingers "Oh, I've been meaning to ask....just how do you plan on fighting Phoenix AND Team Magma?"

Zen hopped up to Archie and jumped up and down happily. "Abra!"

"We can take down Magma and Phoenix because they are operating on an unstable alliance. A simple push could ignite a war between them. After that, its just remnants."

Vinn nodded. "Sounds good I guess." then he remembered he had left Scynn and Ixxen back at his ship. "Oh! I have to go. Tell me when the glorious revolution starts!" he waved and left.

As he went, a sudden thought struck him. Vinn altered his path and headed on.

Toward Magma base.

-

Mary sat to the side, sighing with boredom. She was wondering when Janie would get back. She had followed the others like Janie said, but she felt out of place. Mary decided to poke Tyler and look up at him to see if he knew when she'd be back.

-

Janie's dad paused from his work and turned to look at Janie. "You want to be a trainer? That's strange. Did you meet someone or something?"

Janie shrugged and looked off to the side. "Yeah, I met some trainers who want me to join them. I can train Mary and catch some more Pokémon........and travel."

"Oh, I see. Well......I guess I can't really say no. You _are_ old enough to go out on your own. Wait, who are they?"

"Um, just a couple of boys."

"_Boys?_ Just boys?"

"Yeah.....Don't worry, I'll pack pepper spray."

"That's my girl." He gave his daughter a hug and stood up to walk her out. "I'll break the news to your mother. You go ahead and go. Have fun, and _be safe_."

Janie ran out the door and turned to wave to her parents. "Don't worry, I will."

-

"Sableyyye."

Eric turned to see Renegade coming out of the cave and walking toward him. Renegade hopped up on the rock and onto Eric's lap.

"Hey, Renegade," Eric said. "Is Wraith in position?"

"Say-Sableye!"

"Good. Now we just have to wait for him to come back with the codes to lock down this place... And for Yolanda and Calfrun to get out here! Where are they!?"

Yolanda had remained silent this whole time, taking it all in. "I'm right behind you, Eric. I've been here the whole time..." she sighed.

Eric jumped when Yolanda spoke. He was rarely surprised by anything or anyone, having lived with a crafty Sableye and a prankster Duskull, so this was unusual for him. He whirled around to see Yolanda standing behind him.

"Oh," he said, flustered. "Well, where's Calfrun? He'd better not be hiding behind me like you were."

"Calfrun? I don't know, he's around..."

-

Inside the Magma base, Wraith was roaming the halls, peeking in rooms as he passed by. He was looking for something specific, a certain room. He knew exactly where that room was, but it couldn't hurt to maybe snag some extra loot for his master. He picked up a couple Ultra Balls from one room, a Potion from another, and a Poké Ball with something in it from another. (Being a Pokémon himself, Wraith could not open the Poké Ball to see what was inside, so we'll just have to wait to see what it is.)

Finally, he reached the room he was looking for. Two Magma Grunts stood guard on either side of the door, each holding spears. A Magmar stood in front of one guard, and a Charmeleon stood in front of the other. Wraith quickly pulled back behind the corner before he was seen. Carefully, he slipped silently underground and moved toward the guards. Rising from the ground behind them, he made a loud wailing noise before using Shadow Sneak to knock out the guards and their Pokémon. Satisfied with his work, he turned to the door and phased through it. He was in.

-

As it turns out, Calfrun _was_ around. He was following behind Xadc, who was tracking Wraith. Whatever his teammates were doing, he wanted in on it.

-

Xeno came to in a heap, covered by huge amounts of dust. He shook rapidly, trying in vain to get the dust out. It didn't work, and now he was gold-colored completely, not a speck of brown anywhere.

Xeno sighed. The two trainers he had witnessed were gone. How long had he been out?

Xeno trudged for a few feet, then remembered that this was a region he had never been to. He didn't know where anything was!

He resigned himself to following the well-worn road.

"Hey! A golden Sandslash!"

Xeno grew a tic mark on his forehead spontaneously. One quick slash, and the annoying trainer found himself without a belt. Another, and Xeno stole his backpack, running off gleefully as the bewildered trainer yelled at him in vain.

"Hey! A golden Sandslash!" Oh... this is going to be annoying.

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

TheHiddenAssassin

Xero

Veralice


	16. Chapter 16

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter 16

* * *

Darrien looked down on Burlain from atop a small rise. Mouthy, his Chatot, perched on his shoulder.

"Damn Phoenix grunts, think they can take my city..."

"Damn Phoenix!" Mouthy imitated.

"Shuddup, you!"

"Shaddup, you!"

Darrien sighed. This might be harder than he thought.

-

Michael cogitated over this.

"Hmm... That does sound like a good plan. But how are we going to spark the rebellion? Are we going straight for Magma members, or are we going to drop hints to make Magma think Phoenix doesn't have its back, or what?"

"Hello?" came the voice of Nurse Joy. "Excuse me." The famous nurse of Pokémon Centers all over the world walked up to the cluster of couches where the group was sitting. She was holding a Ditto in her arms. "A trainer came by here earlier with this Ditto. Have you seen him? He seems to have forgotten it here."

"No, I'm sorry, ma'am," Michael replied.

"Oh, this is not good." Nurse Joy was clearly very worried, but whether it was for the Ditto or for her reputation, it was not clear.

"Chansey!"

A Chansey waddled up to Nurse Joy with a phone.

"Hello?" Nurse Joy said, taking the phone. "Yes? Yes, I do. Oh, my! He has? That's terrible! Well, thank you, Officer Jenny. You've been a great help. Good bye." She pressed a button on the phone and handed it back to Chansey, who waddled away again. "It seems," Nurse Joy said, "that the trainer of this Ditto is notorious for catching Pokémon and releasing them if he thinks they are not useful. Now I've got a loose Ditto on my hands."

Michael didn't know what to say. He would have been happy to take the Ditto, but he didn't want to seem rude.

As if reading his mind, Nurse Joy said, "Would any of you like to take this Ditto? It seems very friendly, and I'm sure it would be happy to join you."

Michael unhooked a Poké Ball from his belt and held it out to the Ditto. "Sure," he said. "I'll take him along with me." The Ditto happily stuck its hand... blob thing... out and touched the button on the Poké Ball. Ditto disappeared inside the ball, and the ball clicked shut without any trouble. Michael grinned. "Alright! I got a Ditto!" Nurse Joy walked away, glad she didn't have to worry about the Ditto anymore.

Wes thought deeply.

"We must get more recruits. They must not be grunt level weaklings like Phoenix and Magma. I've heard it said a team is as strong as its weakest member. We may not be a team...but it applies to us. We must be strong, but there is also a strength in numbers." A mailman ran in.

"Is there a Wesley in the room?"

"Here!"

"A package from a Candace of Snowpoint." The mailman handed Wes a package and left. Wes opened the box and found a note and a Pokeball.

_Hey Wes!_

_How is my favorite rockstar doing? I'm fine. Your Dad won't stop talking to me about how restless Regigigas is. I miss you! When will you come visit? Well send me a message when you can!_

_Love Candace._

The Poké Ball opened and out popped a small little blue puffball.

"Spheal!"

Ryan watched as everyone else seemed to mysteriously obtain various Pokemon. He wasn't envious at all; all he needed was his Dratini and he would be set. Still, it wouldn't hurt to get another Pokemon.

"Ryu. What's your favorite type of Pokemon?" Ryan asked, even though Ryu couldn't very well reply back.

"Dra. Dratini." Ryu wrapped its tail...body...whatever Dratinis have...around a book in Ryan's backpack. He didn't have a a Pokédex as he couldn't afford one and never got to stay with one professor long enough to get one, so he used the book his mother wrote on the hundreds of species. Ryu knocked the book open and flipped the pages using a small Twister, pointing out some of his favorite Pokemon. Charmander...Larvitar...Magikarp. All surprisingly dragon like, save for the last one.

"Figures." Ryan laughed, putting the book back in his pack. "I'll be sure to add to the team and include your favorites, Ryu." Ryu nodded in appreciation and fell asleep again. The previous battle and massive twister had drained his energy.

"Why don't we just pit every team against each other? Let's go call up Team Rocket, and Team Galactic, and Team Phoenix. By pitting them against each other the conflict would only escalate to a point that might be unstoppable." Ryan said insightfully.

"It may work, but unseen consequences may come of it. Such as one Team absorbs the others and becomes on super team. Or instead mass murder falls upon various regions as an all out war happens." Wes said thoughtfully. "But it may be our best bet."

Mary sighed and sat down, pouting. Janie had been gone for a while, and she missed her. She sat there with the others and waited.

Michael, slightly annoyed that he was becoming more and more of a minor character as the story progressed, stood up and said, "Well, this is nice and all, but shouldn't we be doing something? I don't think just sitting around here is going to do much good. So I'll leave you all to get things running with Paladin. I'll be off exploring. Probably heading back to the Durgood Forest, then I'm going to Darangonind and Burlain to check out Phoenix's latest attacks." He walked out of the Pokémon Center and started toward the Durgood Forest and his secret base.

-

Wraith was now in the control room. He knocked out the Magma officers in the room with another Shadow Sneak, then advanced toward the main computer. Several screens filled the wall, showing the different parts of the base through security cameras. He pressed a button and froze the screen for the Regenerator room. Then he pulled up a document that was minimized on the screen of the main computer. It was titled "Regnerator: Top Secret." Making sure no one else was in the room, Wraith punched a button and printed the document. He grabbed the sheets, then returned to the computer to close the window. When a pop up appeared saying, "Would you like to save Regenerator: Top Secret? All unsaved changes will be lost," a mischievous grin spread across his face, and he clicked "No." Then he slipped out of the room and headed toward the exit.

Wraith turned around when he thought he heard something scuttling over the floor. He thought he saw a shadow move, but maybe he was just imagining things. Either way, he was a Ghost-type Pokémon, and he could easily slip out of anyone's grasp at a moment's notice. He continued on his way, finally seeing the light of the sun shining on the entrance to the cave.

-

Calfrun walked over to the computer Wraith had used. The pokemon may have only been here for the Regenerator files, but he was here to find anything that Team Magma had that Phoenix could use. He didn't expect what he came across.

He found a file detailing Magma's top secret plan to eliminate Phoenix. It wasn't even password protected. Idiots.

The plan was shockingly accurate, and it was supposed to begin once the two teams had taken over all of Novien. That was predicted to be within the next few days. Calfrun saved the file to a flash drive he just happened to have, but didn't delete the one on the computer. If Magma didn't know that Phoenix knew of the plan, they could easily launch a counter attack when the time came.

There was a noise in the hallway, and Calfrun snuck out and followed Wraith out of the cave. Zac walked in a second later and saw that the file was open. "What the?" He looked to see if anything else was amiss, and found that the Regenerator's file was missing. "Probably just a mechanical error..." he said, and loaded the backup file. "Probably..."

-

Wraith emerged from the cave and into the light, finally revealing himself. He looked around and saw Eric sitting on a rock with Yolanda at his side and Renegade in his lap. He floated over to Eric and dropped the items he had picked up: first the two Ultra Balls, then the Potion, then the Poké Ball, then the file on the Regenerator. Eric stuffed the Potion and Ultra Balls in his small pack that clipped to his belt, then set the Poké Ball aside. Handling the papers carefully, he flipped through the pages, finding charts and diagrams for the Regenerator, as well as many calculations to operate the machine. Satisfied with Wraith's work, Eric tossed a Pokétreat to the floating Duskull. He then turned the file over and found exactly what he was looking for: the codes to lock all technology in the Magma base.

About that time, Fang returned. No sign of Team Aqua anywhere. No matter. They had what they had come for. Eric gave Fang a Pokétreat and returned him to his Poké Ball.

Eric stood up from the rock and hefted his new Pokéball in his hand. He tossed it and waited to see what would come out. To his delight, a Quilava emerged from the ball, it's fires already lit. Quilava was perfectly alert, taking in his surroundings quickly with short, jerky glances. He soon decided that he was safe, although he was now in the hands of an unknown trainer.

This Quilava had known no previous trainer. It had lived in the wild as a Cindequil until a Team Magma member found him in the forest and captured him with a net. He escaped the Magma Grunt and evolved soon after, only to be caught once again, this time by a Magma scientist. The scientist had hoped to experiment on Quilava, but what he would be doing was a mystery. Now Quilava was happy to have a real trainer who appeared to be less impulsive than the members of Team Magma.

"Well, well," Eric said. "Nicely done, Wraith." Wraith did an ecstatic flip, then poked his Poké Ball, retreating inside it. "Quilava, huh? You'll be a nice addition to my team. Come here, Tiberius." Quilava did not recognize the name, but his new trainer seemed to be talking to him, so he approached. "I'm Eric," Eric told Quilava. "Nice to meet you."

The Quilava comically thrust his paw out to shake Eric's hand. Chuckling, Eric shook Tiberius' paw.

"Alright!" Eric exclaimed. "Now all we have to do is secure the base and head back to HQ." He held out Tiberius' Poké Ball and said, "Tiberius, return!" Tiberius shot back into the Poké Ball in a beam of energy, then Eric began walking toward the entrance to the cave.

Seeing a keypad at the entrance, he took out his file again and punched in the numbers: 35482. There was a clicking sound and a short beep, and a steel door dropped from the top of the cave entrance, barring the way. Soon, the entire base was locked down. Another code — 10486 — and all computer systems in the base were shut down. Finished with the mission, Eric walked back to the rock to rejoin Yolanda and Calfrun.

"Everything's set," he told them. "Let's get going. We were supposed to be at HQ half an hour ago."

Yolanda looked up as Eric returned. "Got the Regenerator Papers?" Shadow clung to her heels. He was unendingly loyal to her, which was why she kept him out of the Poké Ball most of the time. Anyone who even looked like they might threaten her got the claw.

Eric nodded at Yolanda and held up the file, showing her the label _**TOP SECRET**_.

"It's all here," he said. "The designs, the calculations... The purpose. We've got all we need and more."

He gave Renegade a look, and the Sableye scurried up a tree. When he reached the top, he jumped to the one next to it and to the next and the next. He quickly ascended up the volcano and was soon high enough to see over the woods and into the city of Helios below. He used Confuse Ray, and a beam of red, purple, and black light shot into the air. He let the light die down, then returned to Eric down at the entrance to the base. Minutes later, the sound of helicopter wings cutting the air could be heard approaching. A large airplane-like ship with chopper wings appeared over the peak of Solaris. It was time for Phoenix to leave Helios.

-

Xeno snuck slyly into the town, using his masterful skills of evasion to avoid trainers and members of any team.

"HEY LOOK! A GOLDEN SANDSLASH!"

Oh shit.

RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!

Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!

Xeno dodged through the swarming mass of trainers, stabbing the annoyingest ones and the belts of the lesser annoying ones.

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

TheHiddenAssassin

Xero

Veralice

Xeno Major


	17. Chapter 17

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter 17

* * *

Darrien fumbled around with his pack before finding the right Poke Ball. "Alright, come on out." Pinkie, his Jigglypuff popped out with an excited squeal. He handed her a microphone and said, "I've hooked up some speakers all around the city. I need you to Sing into the microphone and put everyone to sleep so that we can get rid of Team Phoenix. Okay?"

"Jigglypuff!"

He stuffed some cotton in his ears and returned Mouthy to his Poké Ball. "Okay, go for it!"

"Jigglypuff, Jiggly-oh-lypuff!"

Everyone in town was suddenly sleepy, and passed out where they were. Darrien removed his cotton and stifled a yawn. "Good-Ah-work, Pinkie!"

-

Calfrun handed the file he had stolen from Magma to Erik. "You may want to take a look at this."

Eric took the file from Calfrun and opened it. What he saw really sparked his interest. A Magma uprising? Surprising that they had the plans already, details and everything, but not altogether unexpected. After all Magma and Phoenix were both evil teams. They couldn't be trusted to hold a truce for long.

Eric closed the file and slipped it in the file with the Regenerator plans. A rope ladder fell from the airlift above, and he grabbed onto it, holding the file tightly. Renegade climbed over him and scaled the ladder easily, disappearing inside the ship. Eric stepped up a few rungs on the ladder to make room for Yolanda and Calfrun. A Phoenix Grunt looked over the edge of the airlift and down at the three officers below. He had his hand on the crank for the ladder and was ready to pull them up.

"Good work, Calfrun, Eric yelled over the noise of the airlift. "HQ will need to see this immediately."

"Sableye..."

Renegade facepalmed and shook his head. If Eric had just one fault, it was his sense of unwavering responsibility toward Team Phoenix. He never took things into his own hands, always relying on the boss to make the decisions. But that wouldn't last for long. Renegade could sense something arising that would cause Eric — and Yolanda and Calfrun — to learn to do things on their own. Whether it was for the team or not.

Calfrun looked used a computer on the ship to look at his next mission assignment. An attack on Roi Rill. Team Magma and Team Phoenix's simultaneous attacks on every part of Novien were beginning. The opposition had no chance. Soon, Novien would be completely under their control. Team Magma would make their move. And Team Phoenix would be ready for it.

Yolanda stood by as Eric read the file. Suddenly her phone rang. "She answered it.

"Sleepy...Jiggly...puff..."

"What the... who the hell is this?"

"Phoenix... Burlain...need assistance..." The man on the other line fell silent. A moment later she heard snoring. She sighed and hung up.

"Apparently there's some trouble in Burlain City, Eric. Want me to check it out? Something about a Jigglypuff..."

Eric glanced at Yolanda with slight concern. But his worry was short-lived. Yolanda could handle herself. But a Jigglypuff... What if she got put to sleep? She was his responsibility.

Renegade jiggled the rope ladder. Eric looked up at the Sableye and saw that his diamond eyes were shimmering, almost pleading. Renegade nodded, as if urging him to let Yolanda go. Eric sighed.

"Alright," he said finally, looking back down at Yolanda from the ladder. "You've got your phone with you. If something comes up, call me immediately." He paused. "We don't want Team Magma getting any more information than they need."

Renegade sighed, exasperated. Would Eric ever learn?

Yolanda grunted, called Shadow back, and released her Honchcrow. She climbed onto its back and flew away to Burlain. 'Ridiculous' she though to herself. 'A Jigglypuff incapacitating the entire occupation force in Burlain.' Although... that it was able to do so suggested that it belonged to a trainer.

this might be interesting after all.

-

Janie ran as fast as she could towards the pokemon center. She wanted to make sure she got there before they left, plus Mary was still with them, and she would probably follow them until she came back. But on her way something gold caught her eye. She looked to where she thought it was and saw a golden Sandslash. "Woah, that's weird. You don't usually see them here."

She saw that it was running, and she sprinted to catch up to it. "Hey, little guy, wait up!"

"Oh hey, you're back." Tyler observed.

"Yeah, you were at your parents house or something," Tyler said to Janie

Janie took her attention off of the Sandslash and walked inside passing Wes. She saw Mary immediately since she bounced from the ground and into Janie's arms. She kept saying "MERILL! MERILL!" So Janie guessed she was upset. "I'm sorry, Mary. I'll take you too next time."

Janie turned to Tyler and placed Mary down. "I went home to say goodbye to my parents, but I'm ready now. What did I miss?"

Wes stood up.

"Guys I'm off. I'm going back to Burlain." Aristar shot next to him eager for a battle with Phoenix. There was another reason he was going to leave, but if he thought to hard about it now he would break down then and there. Wes walked out the door his 5 Pokemon following close behind.

"Pidg-Pidgeotto!" Screamed a bird overhead. It wasn't time to go after it, but boy did Wes want one. Come to think of it that same Pidgeotto had been following him. Much like a crazed fan. Wes looked back towards the road. He noticed Janie and a golden Sandslash. _Looks like he and Ragnarok have a little in common._

-

Alianna stormed out of her room and out of the Pokemon Daycare, Bartimus at her heels and her Vulpix (Leora) in her Poké Ball. She was furious now, and Bartimus mewled sympathetically.

"Not now Bartimus. We're on a mission."

"Eevee?"

"Yeah. We're gonna take down Team Phoenix and my sister."

"Eevee!"

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

Xero

nel


	18. Chapter 18

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter 18

* * *

Darrien and his Pokémon worked quickly to gather up the Phoenix grunts and throw them out of town. Loudred was the only real help since his other Pokémon were too small.

-

Michael walked through the Durgood Forest, looking at the trees as he went. He was looking for a specific tree. _His_ tree. His secret base was on the edge of the forest by the Durgrave Sea. His tree was beside a large boulder half-buried in the soft soil. The tree had two large holes above a three-foot doorway, which was hidden by a moss curtain.

He finally found the tree and pushed aside the moss, crouching inside the doorway and resetting the curtain meticulously once he was inside. With his music mats and poster under his arm, he grabbed a rope and began scaling the inside of the hollow tree, stepping foot over foot on the wooden walls.

Michael preferred living on all levels of the woods, so, unlike the typical secret base, his had multiple floors. The ground floor was nothing, just the entrance. He set one of his music mats at the entrance to warn him of any visitors.

The second floor was his lounge, where a bean bag chair sat in front of a TV. A Wailmer mat covered most of the floor on the second level. He unrolled his poster and put it up on the wall behind the TV, briefly admiring the Treecko picture. Then it was on to the third floor.

The third and final floor was the kitchen and dining room. A doorway, just large enough for Michael to walk through at full height, stood opposite the room from where the rope was set up. The doorway opened up to a sturdy tree branch outside. Another branch from an adjacent tree extended to the secret base beside the doorway, and the two branches were at about equal height. Michael had, with Xero's help, built a platform on the two branches. This served as his observation deck... and his duel arena. Any trainers passing by who happened to discover his base would have to battle him on this platform. Michael set his last music mat down at the foot of the doorway and walked onto the platform. The tree with the second branch also had a doorway, though this one was much smaller. He carefully slid through the hole, feet first, and slid down a chute to a level about halfway between the ground and second floor of the first tree. This tree was where he slept. A short wooden bed with a feather-leaf mattress stood in the center of the room, and a small suitcase with clothes in it sat off to the side.

Michael was very proud of his secret base. It was decently hidden, being one tree —well... two — in the dense woods. And the interior design was very elaborate. He just wished he could have something like this back home in Fortree City... oh, wait. He did.

He flopped down on his bed and kicked off his shoes. He placed his five Poké Balls in his suitcase — Xero, Scar, Breeze, Checkers, and Cell, in that order — and laid back in bed with his arms behind his head. Xero buzzed about busily, moving things around in the base and outside in order to keep it well hidden. It almost seemed like he had OCD. Michael laughed at the thought of an OCD Pokémon and fell asleep to the sounds of the forest.

-

Eric set the files down beside the ship's computers and sat down. Things were really starting to get out of hand with this alliance. It was just that there were all these teams in the same region... It was impossible to get by without any competition.

"So, Calfrun, what's the mission update?" he asked.

"The attacks on all remaining inhabited Novien areas has begun." Calfrun said. "We are to go to Roi Rill and assist there, which shouldn't be too hard since Magma HQ is in that city. I'm worried about Burlain thought, it's in between Roi Rill and Fraisrusk. If it is retaken, things will become more difficult. And then there's Magma's imminent betrayal..."

Eric looked at Renegade with worry. Renegade seemed to sense his thoughts and quivered with stress.

"It looks like it won't be too long until Magma turns on us," Eric murmured. He glanced at the files next to the computer and put his hand on top of them. "Calfrun, if something happens to me, make sure these plans get to HQ at all costs."

As if on cue, a Tropius flew out of nowhere and rammed the airlift, shaking it violently. Eric fell from his seat and rolled across the floor as the airlift tilted to its side. Renegade was knocked off his feet, and he went tumbling out of the open door of the airlift.

"NO!" Eric yelled. He pushed himself to the door, unclipping his Poké Ball from his belt, and pressed the button, aiming it at Renegade. Renegade turned into a beam of energy and returned to the Poké Ball, perfectly safe. He clipped the ball to his belt and Eric sighed with relief.

But it wasn't over yet. The Tropius attacked the ship again, shaking it so hard that Eric fell from the airlift.

Eric scrambled in the air, groping at his belt to find the right Poké Ball. Tiberius. No. Fang. No. Renegade. No. There!

"Go! Wraith! Use Psychic!"

Eric's green Duskull popped from his Poké Ball and began dropping alongside Eric. Wraith caught his Poké Ball, then focused on his command. Raising his wing-like hands, his entire body began to glow with a bluish-purple aura. The same aura covered Eric, and Wraith was soon straining to slow their fall. The ground was still approaching quickly. With a burst of energy, Wraith's Psychic power shot far above any power he had ever shown before. Within seconds, they had slowed from free fall to almost a complete stop.

And just in time too. They had stopped mere inches from the ground. Worn out, Wraith released his Psychic hold on Eric and poked the button of his Poké Ball. Eric hooked it to his belt and, with a quick, "Good job, Wraith," he got up and started walking toward the nearest Pokémon Center. On the side of the road, he saw a sign.

_Welcome to Roi Rill Port._

_-_

Wes arrived at the edge of Roi Rill just in time to see a man fall from the sky. He looked at him with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Erik!" Calfrun exclaimed in surprise. "Damnit! Xadc!" Upon being released from his Poké Ball, Xadc used ember and double kick on the Tropius, sending it falling down to the lands below to die where anyone nearby would hear a sickening thud. Xadc suddenly began glowing, and when he stopped he was a Blaziken. Calfrun didn't have time to be happy though, and the ship began to angle towards Roi Rill.

"Stop!" Calfrun yelled at the pilot. Upon getting a confused look he said, "Look, if he's dead, he's dead. He asked me to get this to HQ, and that's what I'm going to do." He just hoped he would get back in time to join the attack and maybe even find what had happened to Erik.

_Quickly, Damnit! Quickly!_ he thought, aware that just wanting the ship to go faster wouldn't make it do so.

-

Releasing his Pokémon from their Poké Balls, Eric walked into the Pokémon Center.

And then left. Vinn was there. And so were a bunch of Aqua Grunts. He couldn't be seen here. He would have to disguise himself or go somewhere else... or both. None of those options particularly appealed to him, but it had been a while since he had gone under cover, so he decided to go incognito.

He took off his black and red Phoenix jacket and turned it inside out, revealing pure black leather. He stopped by a stall nearby and bought a pair of sunglasses. Removing his black and red gloves, a sure giveaway that he was a member of Phoenix, he stuffed the gloves in pockets, put his Pokémon back in their Poké Balls, and returned to the Pokémon Center.

He walked casually to the front desk and placed his Poké Balls on a tray, which was soon taken away by a Chansey. Pushing his sunglasses up on top of his head, he looked around the Pokémon Center as if taking in his surroundings. His eyes finally landed on the group sitting around a table discussing teams. That caught Eric's attention.

The Chansey returned to the desk with Eric's fully recovered Pokémon and slid the tray across to him. Eric plucked the Poké Balls from the tray and replaced them on his belt distractedly, listening to Paladin's discussion with intense curiosity.

-

Xeno fled from the crowds of Pokemon trainers, a stolen biking backpack slung crudely over his backspikes. He now sported, ironically, a camouflage ballcap that proclaimed in bright gold letters:

You can't see me.

Xeno skedaddled around town, trying to hide in basements and the like, but always being found by some random trainer.

Finally, he gave the crowds the slip and left the town, to watch a man fall from the sky. Xeno paused, checked his body for any puncture wounds, then looked at the falling man again.

Now there's something you don't see everyday, Xeno thought.

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Calfrun

TheHiddenAssassin

Xero

Xeno Major


	19. Chapter 19

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter 19

* * *

After hearing Calfrun's report and viewing the files, Team Phoenix's leader roared in rage. "Double cross _us_ will they?!? Calfrun, for bringing this to me, you are hereby promoted to the same rank as Erik. If it turns out he has truly died, you will take over for him. I want you to head to Roi Rill and tell all Phoenix members you now command of Magma's plan. I will make sure all other squadrons know of thins, and I will have our research and development team get to work on the Regenerator."

"Yes sir!" Calfrun said, then he turned and left the room, running back towards the airship. He needed to get back to Roi Rill and find Erik.

-

Nicole sat in her living room with Edana curled up beside her. She rawred an apple as she flipped through the random channels. They always seemed to be random reports and boring movies. "Isn't there anything interesting on?" she said as she took another bite of her apple.

"...Up next, more info on the attacks of Team Phoenix and Team Magma."

Nicole set the remote down and wrapped her arms around her knees in a comfortable position. "This looks interesting."

"What was that, dear?" Her grandmother called to her from the kitchen. She was making more Lava Cookies for tomorrow's sale.

"Nothing, grandma. Just the TV."

Nicole turned her attention back to the tv as the news came back on. It showed images of the town Darangonind where a Team Aqua base had been destroyed. Apparently, Team Phoenix and Team Magma had teamed up to eliminate them. Nicole scoffed as she listened to the report. "An alliance? _That'll last_."

She took another bite of her apple as Edana looked up at her. Nicole raised an eyebrow at her. "What? Team's like that never last. They're just gonna make a huge mess."

Edana sighed and curled back up into a ball. Nicole contintued to watch the report. It showed images of the two teams. Nicole watched as pictures of Team Phoenix were shown. "Hey! They look like me!"

Nicole looked down at her red jacket with the black collar and hems, and her black riders gloves. She was even wearing their colors elsewhere with her black tank top and shoes and red jeans. She looked very similar to Team Phoenix. The only major difference was her Fire Fighters pin on her jacket, but it was small. She laughed when she compared herself.

"Maybe I'm part of the team and didn't know it, eh Edana?"

Edana sighed. Nicole laughed and scratched behind her ear. "You'd better rest up. We're going into the caves tomorrow morning."

-

Vinn noticed Eric walk into the Pokemon center but said nothing, only inclining his head slightly in recognition.

"Hey..I'm gonna go use the restroom." he said to the others, wandering off in Eric's general direction.

After a moment he was on the other side of the room near Eric. "Well you're looking well." He muttered quietly.

Suddenly Calfrun burst into the Pokémon center, not disguised as Erik was. "There you-" he stopped when he noticed everyone looking at him. Recognizing some of them, he said "Oh, hey guys, what's up?"

Eric sidled out of view of the members of the so-called Paladin.

"Hello, Vinn," Eric said quietly, giving Calfrun a fierce look to warn him not to blow his cover. "Yes, well, I _did_ just survive a thousand-foot drop. But that's beside the point. What is that group over there talking about? I picked out a few bits about Phoenix and Magma, and something about a new team joining up with Aqua. What's going on?"

-

Back in the Durgood Forest, Michael awoke from his nap. Putting on his shoes and putting his Poké Balls on his belt, he slid down a vine that hung down through the second tree of his secret base. Reaching the end of the rope, he swung himself over to the side of the tree and hooked his feet over a hole, which from the outside would look like a normal bird hole. He slid his legs through the hole and, when he had his knees on the edge of the hole, he let go the rope, hanging from the hole by his legs. Taking a firm hold on the edge of the hole, he pulled himself upward in order to slide more of his body out of the hole.

To make a long story one sentence shorter, he got out of the hole and started walking back toward Roi Rill Port.

His plan for Roi Rill was to catch a boat and head over to Gravensoil Town. He had heard that Trapinch had a large population in the Gravensoil Desert, and he was very interested in obtaining a Flygon at some point.

Michael was soon back in Roi Rill, and he clicked the button in his running shoes, slowing to a stop by the dock. Two ships rested in the dock side by side: the S.S. Anne and the S.S. Marie. Blowing off the S.S. Anne, having heard of its journey to the Kanto region only to never return, Michael bought a ticket for the S.S. Marie. The ship was not scheduled to set sail for another hour, so he decided to go back to the Pokémon Center to see if everyone else was still there.

He entered the Center, and sure enough, there they were. He walked over to the table and sat down beside Tyler.

"Hey, guys," he said cheerily. "I'm back. So what have you come up with so far? I'm still willing to help if you need me. But I'm off to Gravensoil Town soon, so I won't be able to help much."

"Vinn, you can tell me what that group is plotting later," Eric said urgently. "Right now we have to get out of Roi Rill. Phoenix and Magma are about to launch an attack on every major city in Novien. And Roi Rill is on our list."

Too late. At that moment, hell broke loose. Everywhere. In Roi Rill, in Lavatown, in Helios, everywhere. Reinforcements were even sent to Burlain. As the Magma forces spread from their HQ and the Phoenix forces moved inward, the city was set ablaze. Phoenix's philosophy was that the cites went down in flames, then rose from the ashes. When Pokémon battles started breaking out as people tried to fight back, Calfrun ran outside the Pokémon Center and ended up battling side by side with Zac.

"Hey there." He said.

-

"An attack? Ryu and I can take 'em." Ryan chuckled, knowing that nothing could be further from the truth. Though Ryu was powerful, immensely so, there was no way he could take an entire team.

"I say we call Giovanni of Team Rocket and tell him to stop them using some genetically altered Magikarp." Ryan suggested, more so for comic relief than actual help.

There was nothing that could be done though, and within the hour Roi Rill had been overcome. Calfrun suddenly found a knife at his throat, and just as quickly his attacker, who turned out to be Zac, was knocked over by Xadc. What happened next was unclear. People just started fighting, not even necessarily members of their own team. It was utter chaos. And if it wasn't stopped, it could turn into the largest massacre the world had ever seen.

Calfrun had thought that they were prepared for the betrayal, but he was proven wrong in an instant. And Zac had managed to escape.

Michael, always the clever one, ordered an Aqua member to send out his Pokémon. It was a Vaporeon. Michael sent out Cell, his new Ditto, and had him use Transform. With a Vaporeon now under his command, Michael hurried outside to stop the attacks.

"Cell! Use Hydro Pump!"

Cell crouched down on his front two paws, then lurched forward, water gushing from his mouth to put out the fire on the Pokémon Center. "Now use Hydro Canon on all of Phoenix and Magma's Pokémon!"

Cell charged up again and then blasted water at the nearest Pokémon, a Flareon. The Flareon died. Then the Charmander next to it died. Then the Magby next to it. Everyone died. Then a Pikachu used Thunderbolt on Cell, and Cell died. Then Michael gave up and ran away. Eric ran from the Pokémon Center screaming because he was on fire. PFG appeared out of nowhere and hugged Eric, joining in his flaming hysteria. Eric died. Michael got caught by a flying piece of burning PokéMart and died. Everyone died. Novien died.

The attack was successful.


	20. Chapter 20

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter 20

* * *

Recovering from his tragically heroic delirium, Michael snapped back to attention just in time to see Flareon faint. Cell continued using Hydro Cannon, knocking out Fire Pokémon after Fire Pokémon. But then Team Phoenix intervened. A Raichu jumped in front of a Charizard just before Hydro Cannon could hit it. Using Thunder, Raichu sent electricity bolting through Cell's stream of water, shocking Cell and knocking him out in one blow.

"Shoot!" Michael muttered under his breath. "Go! Scar! Breeze! Team up to take them down! Scar, focus on Team Phoenix! Breeze, you take Team Magma! Go!"

Scar and Breeze exploded from their Poké Balls in a frenzy of attacks. Scar fired off a Bullet Seed and followed it up with a Quick Attack combined with Pound to increase the impact he had on the defending Pokémon. His first target was Raichu. Bullet Seed hit Raichu in the face and temporarily blinded it. When Raichu could see again, it was too late: Scar's tail connected with its face and knocked it out, like David's pebble to Goliath's forehead.

Breeze attacked Charizard, combining Wing Attack with Quick Attack, just like Scar had with Pound. Breeze's wing slashed Charizard's neck, causing it to cough and sputter. When it recovered and turned around, Breeze was coming around with a Quick Peck Attack. One swift blow to the cranium, and Charizard was out cold.

Suddenly remembering his Horsea, Michael threw another Poké Ball, from which Checkers emerged. Checkers flew from the ball and landed in the water. Conveniently, as soon as Checkers hit the water, he decided it was time to evolve. So he did. Just the experience of seeing all those Phoenix and Magma Pokémon was enough to level him up to evolution. Within seconds, Horsea was replaced with a Seadra. Even more conveniently, a TM happened to bubble up to the surface of the water during the evolution. Seadra accidentally touched the TM and learned Water Spout. Since Seadra was at full strength, Water Spout was at full power, so, inferring that Michael wanted him to do something, Checkers fired a Water Spout at the members of Team Phoenix and Team Magma. Most of Magma's Pokémon fainted, and even some of Phoenix's did as well.

Things weren't looking quite as hopeless as before.

Scar used dig and took out a Rapidash. Suddenly, Scar began to glow, and he too conveniently evolved into Grovyle. Michael now had two newly evolved Pokémon!

"What the hell?" Seresay said in amazement from beside Michael. Then he burst out laughing. "Look! They're fighting each other! This has changed from an organized attack into utter chaos!" He brought out his Piplup. "Let's get some revenge! Who knows, maybe you'll conveniently evolve too."

Ryan sat back and watched. Even though Ryu was virtually immune to Fire attacks due to its love of water and Dragon type, Ryu figured Michael and his convenient evolutions could handle it.

"I'll just sit back and watch. I think your convenient evolutions can handle the battle, Michael." Ryan said, chuckling to himself. Ryu eyed Ryan with a slight bit of annoyance, prompting Ryan to yield.

"Fine...Ryu, use Thunderbolt on all of them! Paralyze them in their tracks!" Ryan commanded. Ryu obliged happily and used Thunderbolt on every Pokemon he saw (every enemy, anyway), all while levitating to avoid their attacks.

"Wow...Ryu...I've never seen you move that fast. I guess your will to battle is just too awesome." Ryan said. Ryu nodded and swiftly evaded all of the generic Fire Pokemon, paralyzing each one he could

*Ryu learned Agility!*

-

Eric rushed from the Pokémon Center, leaving Vinn behind. He watched as Magma turned against Phoenix. Already? Eric was becoming increasingly frustrated with the workings of the evil teams in Novien. Of course, a lasting alliance could not be expected, but you'd think Magma would at least be smart enough to leave civilians alone when overthrowing Phoenix. But apparently not.

Already getting tired of the fighting, Eric sent out Renegade and Wraith.

And, what do you know? Wraith conveniently evolved too! Suddenly, where a Duskull had just been floating, a Dusclops now stood in his place.

"Awesome!" Eric exclaimed. But his enthusiasm quickly disappeared when a Raticate came barreling toward Wraith with its teeth bared, ready to use Bite.

"Wraith! Use Shadow Ball!"

Wraith jumped into the air and hovered in place as a black ball formed between his hands. The Shadow Ball become so large that Eric almost had to call off the attack for fear of destroying everything around them. One thing that bugged Eric about Team Phoenix was its philosophy of rising from the ashes. He did not like destroying everything in his path. He preferred to stick to the more traditional Team Rocket code of conduct, although he was much more skilled than those Rocket numskulls.

Snapping out of his reverie, Eric watched as Wraith's Shadow Ball wiped out ten Grunts and their Pokémon. And not all from Magma.

Itching to get some action, Renegade used Zen Headbutt and rammed straight through three Magma Pokémon and their trainers. He then used Confuse Ray on the six of them and led them off the pier. Then he used Shadow Claw to slash through a Haunter and Xatu, then Focus Punch to smash in a Phoenix Persian's face.

Eric took off his jacket and returned it to how it was supposed to be. The red and black of his jacket now showed in the open. The small Phoenix symbol, a flaming bird on a pile of ashes, seemed to stand out like a neon sign. He was really becoming tired of the Phoenix life. He wished he could just rip the symbol from his jacket and throw it to Tiberius to burn it. But he restrained himself. If he wanted to survive this invasion, he would have to at least show some effort to support Phoenix.

He walked up behind Zac and punched him in the back of the head. Hard. He now stood back-to-back with Calfrun, ready to fend off any enemies that approached, whether it be Magma, Aqua, or civilian.

Calfrun stood there, giving commands to his team. Xadc was dominating dozes of enemies while barely breaking a sweat, Exia and U§ƒen were once again proving their usefulness as a team, and even Lendri, his Prinplup, and Nomon, his Staravia, were doing fairly well. However, the Bidoof was still just barely managing to survive.

The enemies just kept coming. Every time it looked like they were about to let up another wave of foes came crashing in. _Will this ever end?_ Calfrun thought, _I can't keep this up forever!_

-

Nicole jumped up from her couch when she heard some loud noises from outside. It sounded like shouting from _a lot_ of people. She ran out the door with Edana behind her and found her small home of Lavatown was being invaded by a massive amount of Team Phoenix and Magma members. Nicole rushed into the center of town and began shouting out to everyone that they were coming.

All of the Fire Fighters club members burst out of their homes with their Pokémon behind them. Some were rushing down from the mountain to help with a counter attack, but some of Team Phoenix and Magma were already beginning to set the town ablaze. Nicole skidded to a stop and turned around to charge towards them. "Edana, use Flash Fire."

Edana immediately ran ahead of Nicole to fire flames at the Pokémon that were trying to destroy the town. It knocked out a charmeleon and and a Slugma, but unfortunately it didn't stop the fires. Nicole knew that they would only spread if they didn't stop them. Nicole ran back as other members of the Fire Fighters club began to attack the two Teams. She headed straight for the trail heading up the mountain. She ran into John on the way there. "John, come with me! I have a plan!"

John looked to where the other members were and saw that they had plenty of help, so he turned to follow Nicole as they ran up the trail. Nicole bolted as fast as she could with her Vulpix behind her, trying to veer off course in the dirrection of the mountain area that hung over Lavatown. The rock in that area was very loose and could fall easily. John seemed to see what Nicole was planning and glanced over to the town. Much of the end of it was burning, and Nicole would never make it in time. He glanced around for anything that might make them faster, and he noticed a Rapidash standing on a small cliff looking at the attack. "Nicole, go jump on that Rapidash!"

Nicole looked back at him as she ran. "WHAT!? Are you crazy!? It'll never let me on!"

"If you jump on him when he's not looking, then maybe you can make it in time."

Nicole nodded, put Edana in her Poké Ball, and veered towards the Rapidash. It seemed to be distracted by the fight going on, so Nicole came very close to it without it noticing. When she was about half a foot away, she stumbled slightly and startled it, so Nicole immediately leaped for it's back. She hopped on and hung on for dear life as it charged forward. Luckily it was in the right direction.

Before Nicole could charge off too quickly, John tossed Nicole a Poké Ball, and she caught it. She charged forward on top of her Rapidash, and it looked like she would make it in time. She quickly opened the Poké Ball when they got closer to see what was inside, and out popped an Onix. It burrowed into the ground and Nicole shouted at it to use Earthquake, but it didn't listen. Nicole wasn't its trainer. "Crap, what do I do?"

The Rapidash was still speeding forward, in fact they passed the fight, and Onix was behind her. Luckily, John had shouted to his Onix to use Earthquake, and it began to shake the earth. Nicole took the opportunity to shout to the Fire Fighters to get out of the way. They saw the Onix and fled the battle scene with all of the other citizens in that area. Onix, meanwhile, caused a massive landslide that fell over the whole area that had caught on fire. It put out the fire, and also buried some of the Team members. It also caused a giant wall of rock to fall between Lavatown and the Teams. They were safe for now.

Nicole rode on with the Rapidash in circles until he tired himself out. She then used a Poké Ball on to to catch it. (You caught a Rapidash! Nickname: Bronco.) Nicole then walked back to the remains of Lavatown to meet up with the rest of the Fire Fighters. It seemed that most of them were ok, but some were in pretty bad shape since some of the Pokémon attacked the trainers. Nicole's house had been fine, a little burnt but fine, and her grandmother was fine, too. John also promoted Nicole to officer for her plan. Everything seemed fine for now, but they were all worried about what would happen next.

-

Eric saw Michael's new Grovyle getting ready to use Bullet Seed on a Team Phoenix Dugtrio, so he threw a Pokéball, and Tiberius emerged, jumping at Scar.

"Tiberius! Use Flame Wheel!"

Michael noticed a flaming Quilava rolling toward Scar, and yelled, "Scar! Dodge—!" but it was too late. Scar was burned badly, and he fell on top of Checkers in the water. Luckily, the water put the fire out on Scar, so he was quickly out of the water again, and Checkers was back on the surface, using Water Spout.

The Phoenix Dugtrio was out of danger now... well, not for long. It got knocked out by Checker's Water Spout. But anyway, Eric turned away from Scar now, thinking he had taken care of him.

Michael was tired of this already. Why did they have to fight and destroy the town? He paused to think, then snapped his fingers, an idea already on his lips.

"Checkers! Use Smokescreen!"

Checkers stopped spitting water and suddenly started emitting a dark gaseous substance from his mouth. The smoke covered the entire town, and Michael took this opportunity.

"Xero! Use Pin Missile! Drive the Phoenix and Magma scum out of town!"

Xero's drills began to glow, and thousands of needles shot from them, shooting Pokémon and trainers alike. He flew behind them, buzzing angrily, and pushed several Phoenix and Magma Grunts out of Roi Rill Port and into the Durgood Forest, where Ariados, Beedrill, and Breloom would bring them misery.

-

Oh crap, there's a battle going on!" Tyler exclaimed. "Come on Archie lets go fight some guy.

He ran outside and was immediately confronted by a random Phoenix grunt. He sent out a Magmar without a word. Archie prepared for battle.

"Fire punch!" The Phoenix grunt shouted.

"Archie look out!" Archie leaped backward. "Quick attack!" The Magmar staggered back.

"Double fire punch!"

"That's not a real attack!"

"Sucks for you!"

The double fire punch collided with Archie, fortunately his Flash Fire ability absorbed the fire and converted it into speed and Special Attack.

"Alright, Fire Blast!" Archie inhaled deeply and let out a massive Japanse-character formation for fire. It hit the Magmar and caused it to faint.

"Dang, I got beat by some kid...."

Tyler got $306  
Archie grew to level 32

-

Wes slid under a car. He made it into Burlain. But everyone was asleep. He didn't know if everyone was...but it didn't hurt.

"Aristar scope it out. Make sure everyone is asleep." He looked at Aristar and nodded. As Aristar left Wes ran to his house. He quickly set up a few barricades. He'd defend this spot and if he could he would try his best to run Phoenix out. Even by himself he would try. Wes was a little to confident in his Pokemon. Though they usually pulled through, he always thought they could do anything.

-

Xeno clawed through Pokemon as the city burned around him, taking his time to slaughter the trainers as well. He ditched the hat and bag at the outskirts of the city, and charged in, intent on killing as many Team members as he could, regardless of team affiliation.

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

TheHiddenAssassin

Xero

Veralice

Xeno Major


	21. Chapter 21

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter 21

* * *

Ursula dropped Yolanda off outside Burlain City, next to a pile of unconscious Phoenix grunts. Ursula ruffled her feathers distatsefully, Yolanda sighed.

'A lone Jigglypuff? No, it must have a trainer...' as if to confirm her suspicions, a Sonicboom attack exploded at her feet. Ursula's head jerked up to see a lone Loudred on a hill. Yolanda clicked at Ursula, telling her to attack. The Honcrow lifted up and came at the Loudred with a Wing Attack, but the Pokémon was called back to an unseen Poké Ball before the attack could connect.

'So it IS working with a trainer. I thought, they said they took care of them all. Guess they missed one.'

"Come back here, Ursula!"

She fumbled for her phone and called. Eric. "Eric...dammit...ANSWER THE PHONE!"

Eric's phone buzzed in its pocket on the sleeve of his Phoenix jacket. That was one nice thing about the jacket: the phone pocket was very convenient. He would probably keep the jacket after he left the team... I MEAN.... uhhhh....

Eric tore open the Velcro of the pocket and pulled out his phone. Yolanda. Flipping it open, he put it to his ear.

"Eric, here," he said into the phone, speaking over the commotion around him. "Status report? Tiberius! Metal Claw!" He didn't even bother holding the phone away when he yelled the last command.

Tiberius' from paws began to glow, and his toes spread apart, revealing razor sharp claws. He slashed a Magma Graveler, digging deep into the rock of the Pokémon's body. Graveler used Seismic Toss, jumping into the air, and threw Tiberius into the ground, landing on top of him.

"Tiberius! Push Graveler off of you and use Metal Claw again! This time combine it with Flame Wheel!"

Tiberius obeyed, pulling his hind paws up to his chest and throwing Graveler into the air. Jumping to follow Graveler, Tiberius spun through the air, flipping, and his paws began to glow again through the fire surrounding his body. He slashed Graveler again, hitting the same place with deadly accuracy. His superheated claws cut through the rock like a knife through butter. With a kick, Tiberius dropped to the ground on top of Graveler. Graveler disappeared from under him in a beam of red energy, returning to its trainers Poké Ball. The trainer was out of Pokémon, so he ran as fast as he could to get out of town.

"Wraith, use Ice Beam!"

Wraith created a ball of blue-white energy between his hands and shot an Ice Beam at the fleeing Magma Grunt, freezing him in place. Wraith and Tiberius returned to Eric's side, while Renegade continued fighting on his own without orders. Eric trusted him enough to do so. Now with a brief lull in the battle, Eric turned his attention to Yolanda once again.

"Sorry. I've got a little company at the moment. What's going on in Burlain?"

"It appears we have a rouge trainer in Burlain. He of she owns at least one Jigglypuff and one Loudred. His Jigglypuff Sang and he piled all our members outside the town gate. He isn't a major threat, but I may need backup. Pass that along to the boss, k?"

-

Wes sat behind a building as he saw a Phoenix member on a phone. She seemed impatient.

"What ya looking at?" Aristar whispered making Wes jump.

"Aristar!" Wes muttered angrily. He looked back to make sure she hadn't seen him.

Darrien crept up Wes and his talking Gastly. He placed a hand on his mouth and turned him around.

"Long time no see, Wesley."

Wes jumped as the hand covered his mouth.

"Darrien!" Wes mumbled through the hand. But it sounded more like "Darinn" He pulled his friend's hand off his mouth. "Where've ya been?" Again Wes glanced around the corner. No use being caught.

"Oh, you know... been better." He glanced around the corner as well. "Have you seen? Some Phoenix grunts swooped in and took the town while we were gone. I just got here and threw them out." His eyes lowered. "Oh, hey, look...your parents..."

Wes looked away. "Yea. Its getting close to that day. I should go visit shouldn't I?" Quickly he tried to change the subject. "So Phoenix is about to have a new problem. Paladin, an anti-Team group is getting together, we'll need you."

"Paladin, eh? Sounds like something you'd come up with." He paused, a low murmur began to spread across town. "Oh crap, their waking up! Wes, we need to get anyone with Pokémon in town to get together! The Phoenix grunts will be waking up soo, and I think that lady is a commander of some sort. She will try and take the city back!"

"I did come up with it." Wes grinned. "Lets go." He stood and ran towards houses trying to convince people to get ready to defend themselves.

-

Janie watched as all the trainers around her ran out to fight Team Pheonix and Magma. They were all fighting each other now, and Janie wasn't sure what to do. Mary didn't have much battle experience, but it was never too late to get some. "Come one, Mary. We have to help them!"

Janie ran out of the Pokémon Center into the confusion of the battle. There was smoke everywhere, and it was hard to pick out who was who. Mary stayed hiding behind Janie's leg until a Phoenix team member approached her. He saw how she was cowering to the side with a scared Pokémon and figured she was an easy knock out. He sent out a Houndoom that growled at them.

Janie gasped and took a step back, but she wouldn't run away. The Phoenix member chuckled when he saw her reaction "Houndoom, use Brick Break."

The Houndoom charged at them at full speed. Mary cried out when she saw it coming, but Janie grabbed her and nudged her forward. "Use Water Gun!"

Mary quickly spouted water at the Houndoom, causing it to trip. The ground was now covered in water, and it slid right into the wall. It was unconscious. Janie jumped and cheered, and looked back at the Phoenix member. He was standing there with his mouth hanging open. "Mary, use Roll Out."

Mary rolled directly at the member, and he had his legs knocked out from underneath him. Mary turned around and rolled back over him to return to Janie. "Alright, Mary! We did it!"

Janie ran past the knocked out member and began searching for the others, using water gun as she went.

Tyler then dispatched another Phoenix grunt's Numel with Tallon. the level difference was so great that it grew to level 23 and evolved conveniently into a Golbat.

At the moment, Calfrun was locked in a battle with a Magma grunt.

"Blaze kick!" Xadc responded by kicking hard at the enemy Grovyle. It fainted, but then a Swampert appeared and attacked from behind, as a citizen had decided to attack Calfrun while he was distracted. "Xadc!" Calfrun called, "Get back here!" Xadc came running back to Calfrun's side, and Exia and Ü§ƒen jumped in and simultaneously hit the Swampert with psychic and bite, a combination of psychic and dark types that cause the Swampert to have heart failure and die.

As the other trainer ran to his fallen Pokémon, Calfrun almost felt sorry for him. What were they doing, anyway? Because of their actions innocent people were being harmed. Just then another magma grunt attacked. This was going to be a long day.

_If I survive this,_ Calfrun thought, _I'm not so sure I want to be a member of Phoenix any more._

-

"A rogue trainer!? How did he manage to get pass our invasion force!?" Eric demanded. "Alright, I'll inform the boss and request backup. In the meantime, stay alert. Get some earplugs or something. I'm a little busy here in Roi Rill, but I'll be there as soon as I can."

He flipped his phone shut and called Wraith back to his side. Wraith had been fighting a Gengar, and they appeared evenly matched. A Shadow Ball from Wraith collided with a Psybeam from Gengar, causing a huge explosion that nearly knocked out both Pokémon. Pulling Wraith from the battle, Eric sent Renegade in for a surprise attack from behind.

"Renegade! Use Shadow Claw!"

Renegade popped up behind Gengar and slashed with glowing black claws, pinning it to the ground and knocking it out.

With Gengar now fainted, Eric called Renegade back and returned Wraith to his Poké Ball. He clipped Wraith's Poké Ball next to Tiberius'. Tiberius had been defeated by an Aqua Tentacruel not too long before Yolanda had called. Fang, who he had sent out to fight a Glalie. Unfortunately, when his Iron Tail missed, Glalie used Ice Beam, followed by Take Down, and Fang was knocked out. Eric now only had Renegade and Wraith left, and Wraith was badly weakened from his fight. It was time for him to get out of Roi Rill.

Flipping in his phone and punching in a number, he slipped out of town under cover of Michael's Seadra's Smokescreen. When he reached the Durgood Forest, he called Phoenix HQ.

"This is Leon," came the deep voice over the phone.

"Boss, this is Eric, reporting in," Eric said. "Yolanda has discovered evidence of a rogue trainer in Burlain. Whoever it is has taken out most of our forces in the town. Requesting backup in Burlain. And transportation from Roi Rill."

"Request granted."

The phone clicked without another word. That was the boss for you. Ever the talkative one.

-

Xero, now back from needling Grunts to trees, proceeded to take out a Phoenix Misdreavus with Pin Missile, then followed by blasting it and its trainer to kingdom come with Hyper Beam.

Michael looked around. The city was almost cleared, but there were still a few Phoenix and Aqua Grunts remaining. Magma had no base nearby, so they were without reinforcements, which was unfortunate for them because the Phoenix Grunts quickly retaliated and wiped them out. The Phoenix-Magma alliance was being torn apart, and now there was a rift between them almost as irreparable as the rivalry between Magma and Aqua.

Aqua, on the other hand, having had its base run down in Darangonind, was now stationed temporarily right in Roi Rill Port. So Aqua had no shortage of troops.

-

Phoenix, though, was a completely different story. The Phoenix base was about twenty minutes away by airlift, an hour by bike. Reinforcements were slow in coming, but that did not matter much. The Phoenix Grunts had been specially trained for the purpose of eliminating Team Magma and Team Aqua. Their Pokémon were trained to resist Fire and Water attacks, and some even taught their Pokémon out-of-type moves to counter the two rival teams. Not only that, but the number of Grunts Phoenix was supplied with outnumbered Aqua and Magma combined almost five to one. But still, they could not compete with the sheer number of Grunts, Paladin recruits, and civilians that came to run them out of town. It wasn't long before only ten Phoenix members remained in the city. The rest had either been killed (-.-) or pushed to the Durgood Forest.

Under cover of Wraith's Shadow Sneak (which he was cleverly using as a ninja technique, while Wraith turned invisible... don't ask how an invisible thing can create shadows. It just can), Eric slipped back into Roi Rill and pulled Calfrun and the remaining Phoenix members toward the forest, hidden by the still-present Smokescreen. When they reached the edge of the woods, an airlift appeared over the horizon, approaching quickly. Within seconds, the Phoenix insignia could be seen on the side of the airlift.

Eric turned to Calfrun. "Looks like the alliance is broken. Who knows what chaos will fill Novien now?"

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

Xero


	22. Chapter 22

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter Twenty-Two

* * *

The Burlain Wall was constructed in record time by the rallied citizens of Burlain city, directed by Wesley and Darrien. Mouthy, Darrien's Chatot, carried messages back and forth by repeating what he was told. Surprisingly, no one had thought to do this before now, and Darrien was thinking about starting a Chatot-messaging service once this was over...

All the while Yolanda mulled around the perimeter, waiting for the backup and scolding the present grunt for their incompetence. 'Come on Eric, pull through.' As she though those words, the sky came alive with the sound of a Phoenix transport airship, bursting with EXPERIENCED soldiers.

Now things would get interesting

-

Alianna followed the path out of Helios and around the base of the volcano. Sounds were coming from up in Lavatown, but those were not her concern. She was tracing (as best she could) the path the Phoenix airship had taken. She wasn't sure if Yolanda was on it, but she guessed that she would be where it landed.

Hours passed and she was nearing Burlain City, or so she thought. There was some commotion up ahead but she couldn't quite...

"Hey! What are you doing here?" A harsh voice called to her. She twisted her head in the direction of the sound, a Phoenix grunt. "You shouldn't be here! This is a dangerous area!"

Her anger took hold of her and she said to Bartimus, "Take down!" The Eevee prepped and launched itself at the grunt. He fell with a huff, the wind knocked out of him. "Let's keep going; we're in the right place."

-

Wes climbed atop a section of wall.

"Aristar, Shadow ball." He whispered. Aristar smiled darkly, firing the dangerous attack into a Phoenix grunt. They jumped down taking out three more grunts and their Pokemon. Aristar began to glow. But Wes wasn't looking.

"Hey Wes!" The glow got brighter.

"What?" Wes said turning around. He gaped in excitement as Aristar evolve into a Haunter. "C'mon lets go get their current leader!" Wes hurried hoping to try out his now decked out Aristar.

Yeah... Darrien did something similar, except it involved his Loudred and Sonicboom.

And no evolution.

-

Tyler and Terrance fought another guy on land. Terrance is a Tentacool. Yeah.

-

Eric stopped waiting for Calfrun to say something and boarded the airlift when it landed, pushing Calfrun ahead of him. As soon as the ten surviving Phoenix members had boarded, they were off toward Burlain.

Eric was in Burlain in almost no time. He quickly exited the airlift ahead of the other Phoenix members and rushed to find Yolanda. When he found her, he sighed in relief and walked over to her.

"I'm here," he announced. Looking at the Burlain Wall, he said, "Impressive what the people of this city can do in such little time when in distress. It's a pity we'll have to destroy all their hard work."

"No, not really." Yolanda refused ot admire anything made by lesser people or their pets. She noticed a singular Chatot flying back and forth across the town. She wondered for a brief moment what it was doing before realizing the answer: it was carrying messages.

"How come we never thought of that?" She asked Eric, pointing at the Chatot, wile releasing her Honchkrow, Houndoom, and Weavile.

"Hmm," Eric said, watching the Chatot. "That's a good question. It seems like such an obvious idea..." With a shrug, he sent out Fang, Wraith, and Tiberius (Renegade was already standing next to Eric). "Well, time to take down that wall," he said, ignoring Yolanda's obvious disgust at his admiration of the wall. "Renegade, Zen Headbutt; Fang, Take Down, Wraith, Shadow Ball; Tiberius—"

He was cut off when three Pokémon appeared out of nowhere to attack Yolanda's Pokémon.

-

"Aristar use Shadow ball on Weavile!" Wes shouted, not caring for stealth any longer. The ball flew through the air towards the Ice-Dark Pokémon. "Now Ragnarok, Dragon claw on Houndoom." He commanded the small dragon. "And finally Eliandas use Thunder fang on Honchkrow!" The three Pokémon, after attacking, got ready for a battle.

"Scratch that. Renegade, use Focus Punch on that Bagon! Fang, Bite Gastly! Tiberius, use Fissure on that Shinx! Wraith, use Shadow Ball on the wall!"

The Pokémon obeyed, attacking their respective targets, while Eric stood back and watched.

"Masamune stop those attacks! Spheal get his Duskull!" All 5 were now involved. Masamune was having the most trouble. Having to deal with three new Pokemon was hard on anyone Pokemon. Maybe it was a good thing Masamune was paranoid.

Calfrun jumped out of the airship and started fighting too. _This is getting ridiculous,_ he thought, _My life is just a continuous fight now._

"Screw targets! Cerberus, sweeping Flamethrower across the top of that wall. Ursula, alternate Pursuit and Steel wing on ANYTHING that moves. Same with you, Shadow Claw, only Ice Punch and Shadow Claw!"

"Spheal sweep with Ice Beam across her Pokémons' feet! Don't let them move!" Wes shouted.

-

Janie ran through Roi Rill Port with Mary behind her. It was hard to find anyone through all the smoke and people, but she thought she recognized a voice. "CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!!!"

_Dad_

Janie ran through the smoke until she saw her parents being chased by Phoenix members. Her mom was running behind her dad throwing water balloond behind her. They hit the members in the face and caused some of them to trip. The chase went on until her parents suddenly dove to the side, and the Phoenix members slid on the slide mats that were on the floor and crashed into a wall. They were knocked out.

Janie called to her parents, and they smiled when they saw her. "Janie! You're ok!"

Her mom hugged her and her dad looked around to make sure the Phoenix members weren't around. "We were wondering if you made it out before the Phoenix team showed up, but it looks like you're still here. You should get out of here as soon as you can. Where are those trainer boys you were talking about?"

Janie looked around, but didn't see anyone right away. "I'm not sure. It's chaos out here, but I'll find them." Janie noticed a device in his hand. "Is that the water balloon gun you made for secret bases?"

Her dad held up the gun with pride. "Yes, but it shoots rocks now. Balloons won't work against Team Phoenix members. You should run along now before we're spotted."

Janie hugged her parents before running off back into the crowd. Her parents waved back, and Janie noticed her mom getting teary eyed. Janie looked back as she ran, waving to them, but she suddenly bumped into someone. She looked ahead and saw that it was Tyler. "Oh, there you are. I couldn't find anyone in the smoke."

Tyler squinted to see Janie. "Janie? God, I can't see anything in here!" He waved away some of the smoke. "the battle's mostly over. Phoenix and Magma are retreating to Burlain now. Everyone is going there. Do you have anything that flies?"

Janie shook her head. "No, just Mary. She can help swim us anywhere though. She works like a buoy or floaty in a pool."

"Ugh... Maybe Tallon can take us. Tallon?" A large Golbat flapped into view, blowing away the remainder of the smoke.

"Golbat!"

"Can you take me and Janie to Burlain City?"

"Golbat!" It nodded.

"Good. Oh, Janie. We'll have to put the rest of our Pokémon in their Poké Balls until we arrive."

Janie took a Poké Ball out of her bag and turned to Mary. "Sorry, Mary, you'll have to stay in here for now. Have a safe trip!"

She pressed the button on the Poké Ball, and Mary was transferred inside. She turned back to Tyler, "Ok, I think she'll be fine."

"Okay! Let's go, Tallon!"

"Golbat!" the great bat picked both of them up around the middle with its feet and lifted off.

Far below, they could see all of Roi Rill. Most of it was in flames. "Bye guys!" Tyler called down to Calfrun and the others.

Janie noticed her parents and waved. "BYE, MOM AND DAD!"

They looked up and waved back. Her dad seemed a little tense when he saw that she was getting carried away with a boy, but her mom placed a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.

Janie looked over Roi Rill as they flew over and saw how many Phoenix/Magma members had actually showed up. She hoped Roi Rill would be okay.

-

Alianna could see the Burlain Wall now. But she could also see a handful of Phoenix grunts. She could maybe sneak past them...

"Hey!" She froze. A grunt noticed her. then another. Soon the whole group was looking in her direction. "Who are you?"

Without thinking, she called out Bartimus and Leora. "Go!" they were met by an army of Phoenix Pokémon much larger and stronger. Bartimus was tossed aside by a Sheildon; Leora by a Margmortar. A hyper Beam grazed past her, and she fell next to her defeated team in a heap.

"Heh, the little brat thought she could beat us!"

"Get her and her Pokémon up quick!"

"What's that?" A dark shape descended from the sky and landed in front of Alianna. A Skarmory. With a shriek (Metal Sound) it forced the Phoenix grunts back. Then it let loose Wing Attacks, Steel Wings, and Take Downs until it was the only thing standing. It picked up Alianna, and put her on its back, then gathered up Bartmus and Leora.

"Thank you... Syk..."

A Golbat flew nearby. The Skarmory signaled to the Golbat and its two human passengers and flew into town.

"I think it wants us to follow it. Go, Tallon!"

-

The Fire Fighters gather in John's house and sat around his living room. Everyone was on edge. They hadn't heard any commotion from the other side of the rock wall, but they could always find some way to get to them from the mountain. Even if they would have the advantage, they were afraid of the numbers they might have to face.

"Alright, guys," John finally spoke to everyone, "We seem to have everything under control for now. We have some people patrolling the wall, and I don't think anyone could make it through the mountain unless they were guided. Even then, we'd have the upper hand. Nobody knows the mountain better then us. But still.......it would help to know their next move."

One member stood up to speak. It was one of the lower, normal members. "Maybe we could have some people go out to spy on them."

John rubbed his chin thoughtfully, but then shook his head. "They'd probably catch on to us. Plus, we're not sure of what's over that wall."

Another member spoke up. "What if we made them think we're one of them? Our jackets are almost the same. The only difference is the pin."

John's eyes lit up after this. "Yeah....yeah, that could work. We could have someone sneak around through the mountain. But who...?"

John looked around at each of the members. Most of them were just recruits. The only officers they had they needed here. Then he noticed Nicole. She looked _a lot_ like a Team Phoenix member. Almost identical. She had only just been made an officer, but he knew she was strong enough to handle it. He stared at her for a while and tried to think of the outcome...until she noticed.

"Why are you staring at me like that?..............Oh...NO WAY! I'M STAYING HERE!"

"Nicole, you're one of the only ones who could do it. The recruits aren't strong enough yet, and we need the officers here. And you've gotta admit, you look almost exactly like a Team Phoenix member."

Nicole fell silent. Edana had been next to her, and she reached a paw out to touch her face. She was reminding her of earlier. "Yeah...I get your point...*sigh* Fine, I'll do it."

The club cheered and John led her out of the house. "You're sure about this?"

Nicole raised an eyebrow. "You were the one who just pressured me to do this, and _now_ you want my opinion?"

John sighed and gestured towards her house. "I meant about you grandma."

"Oh....you'll look out for her, right?"

"Right."

Nicole smiled. "Then I have nothing to worry about."

John sent for some recruits to peek over the wall, and they said that the surviving members had made a camp. They decided to act now, and all the Fire Fighters club members showed up to show Nicole off. A lot of the citizens were there, too, including her grandma. John was the first to speak. "Good luck out there. Don't get yourself killed."

Nicole smiled and jumped onto Bronco, her Rapidash. They began to ride off, but suddenly stopped after a few yards. "Oh, I almost forgot." She tossed something to John. "Bye!"

She winked and turned back to the mountain, charging forward. John caught what she had thrown and saw that it was her Fire Fighter's Club pin.

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

Xero

nel


	23. Chapter 23

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter Twenty-Three

* * *

"Cerberus, Flamethrower! Counter that Ice Beam!" Yolanda ordered her Houndoom.

The Ice beam collided with the Flamethrower turning to steam. Wes took advantage and looked to Ragnarok.

"Ragnarok, Headbutt!" Bagon rushed the Houndoom ramming into its stomach. "Eliandas, Thunder on the Honchkrow."

Faster than he could blink, Shadow flew through the air and Ice Punched Elias, freezing it. Ursula turned her attention to the Bagon, unleashing a Dark Pulse attack.

Aristar, before he could be commanded to do so, shot at Shadow with a Shadow ball. He flew down to Eliandas and reached through the ice pulling the small Shinx out.

Shadow fell back to the ground. He prepared an Icy Wind attack, but instead looked up. A Skarmory flew overhead and landed somewhere inside the wall, followed by a Golbat. Carrying two humans.

Confused, he looked back at Yolanda, who pointed fiercely at the Gastly. "Icy Wind, dammit!"

"Hmm I want a freezy!" Aristar commented. He winced as ice and snow pelted his face.

"Eliandas try thunder again. Follow with Thunder Fang."

Shadow bounded into view with another ice Punch, this time focusing on the punch aspect. The little Shinx went flying back over the wall.

"Regroup!" Yolanda shouted. They were all tired, and so was the other side, she could see.

Calfrun landed next to Yolande, having jumped off a building. Several dead and unconscious Pokémon landed next to him, followed by his own team.

"A little more rough than we had imagined, eh?"

"Where the hell have you been? We're almost spent here!"

"As a matter of fact, I found out about a plan by these guys had to try and surround us, and I took my team over there to stop the group that was tailing us."

Yolanda looked back disbelievingly. "Alright... still. It's become more of a standoff than anything now."

-

Nicole rode Bronce through the mountain, turning whichever way got her her closer to the other side of the wall. Bronco didn't seem to mind her now, and he obeyed. He would definitely make it easier to get to the camp. It would have taken her at least a day or two alone.

They were finally approaching the bottom of the mountain at the other side of the wall, and she could see a camp up ahead. "That must be it."

She pulled Bronco over to a spot where he wouldn't be noticed and put him into his pokeball. She had to seem like she had already been there. She snuck through some trees and peeked behind a boulder when she got close. Everyone seemed to just be lounging about. She did notice, however, that Team Magma and Team Phoenix sat separately. That gave her an idea.

She came from around the boulder and strided over to sit with the Team Phoenix members.

-

Wes ran straight past Yolanda, his Pokemon following close behind. He grabbed the wall and began climbing over. As soon as he could he jumped down to the other side and grabbed Eliandas.

"You ok little guy?" Wes asked.

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool


	24. Chapter 24

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter Twenty-Four

* * *

ONE MONTH LATER

Eric sat atop a hill that overlooked the city of Burlain. The citizens rarely left their homes now; they were too afraid of an attack to be caught outside alone. The city was running very low on food. Unable to leave, the people of Burlain were extremely malnourished, as were their Pokémon.

Renegade and Wraith were sparring a little ways down the hill, and Tiberius wrestled with Fang nearby. Things had become relatively quiet compared to the beginning of the attacks about a month ago, so there was not much to do. But every once in a while, a foolish citizen would wander too far from home and stand in perfect view. One quick Ice Beam from Wraith and....

Eric stood and brushed the grass off his pants. He descended to the base of the hill and passed alongside the Burlain Wall. After a month of enduring the siege, the wall was still in impressive condition. Eric could not help but admire the work the people of Burlain had put into the wall. Reaching the corner of the wall, he turned back to go in the other direction, pacing along the wall. He looked up and saw a girl with her Vulpix. It was that mystery girl who had shown up at the beginning of the siege. Eric had never seen her before, even in training at HQ, so she must have been a fairly new recruit. Removing any doubts of her loyalty from his mind, he advanced toward Nicole.

"Any news — ah... it's Nikki, right?"

"Um, yeah, sure. Nothing new yet. You?"

She didn't especially like the nickname, but it might help with her cover. Nicole had blended into the Phoenix Team perfectly. She had managed to keep any advances coming into Lavatown, but she had no choice but to go along when they left. She had no idea what was going on up there, and she hadn't heard word yet about another attack. As far as she knew, the rock wall was still up. They probably had Onix on patrol, too, along with the other members' Pokémon. She wondered how her grandma was doing.

Eric sighed.

"Things are just as uneventful as ever," he said. "I think it's about time we move on. These people aren't going to give in. We might as well head on to the next city and come back later. Of course, we'd have to keep someone hear to keep watch, but I think we've just about served our time here. What's the nearest city— that one on the other side of these hills? Fireville or something?"

"No, we can't abandon the city!" Yolanda appeared, seemingly from nowhere. "They're faltering: their resources are being used up. They can't stay in there forever."

Nicole suddenly looked up and spat out an answer almost too quickly. "Lavatown? They've built a pretty strong wall there, too. And last time they caused a rock slide that collapsed on a lot of members. I hear they also have a club up there protecting them."

Eric hesitated. He was tired of waiting, but his sense of duty washed over him again, and he gave in.

"A club, eh? Well, that would provide a little more action, but I guess Yolanda is right. Alright, fine," he said. "We'll stay another couple days. But if we don't have this city under our control by then, I'm calling in another wave of troops, and we're leaving."

"A club..." Yolanda mused. Another vigilante group against Phoenix. As if their relationship with Magma wasn't bad enough, now there were two MORE groups: Paladin and...

"I haven't that before."

Nicole glanced up at Yolanda. She didn't want to give away any information, but she couldn't just play dumb. "They're...called the Fire Fighter's Club. They specialize with fire Pokémon, and they know the mountain better than anyone else."

"Fire Fighters... interesting. Not very creative."

Nicole tried to hide a scowl and bowed her head, pretending to be dragging her toe in the dirt. "So, what should we do about Burlain?"

Nicole hated the idea of attacking them, but she had to do what she could to help Lavatown.

Calfrun approached Erik and the others, back from patrolling the borders of the city. "I agree with Yolanda." He said. "They probably won't last the week. and now that our influence has faltered all throughout Novien, we really have no choice but to take this city." Xadc, who was standing beside him, grunted in agreement.

"See?" Yolanda waved an arm in Calfrun's direction.

-

Michael had returned to the Durgood Forest after the attack on Roi Rill. They had successfully driven out all of the Phoenix and Magma members, but at what cost? Nearly half the city was destroyed, and there were casualties numbering in the hundreds. The forest was littered with the bodies of Phoenix members pinned to trees and hanging from the canopy.

Michael sat in the "living room" of his secret base and gazed out the small "window." Xero was flying around, keeping the base organized as usual. Breeze was snoozing in her nest just outside the window. Scar jumped from branch to branch, dodging Water Guns from Checkers, who was in the river nearby, and Cell did the same, having Transformed into Grovyle. Things seemed peaceful, but Michael knew better. There could be no peace until all the teams — Magma, Aqua, and Phoenix — had been eliminated.

Grabbing his backpack and sliding down the rope to the ground floor, Michael ran outside and called his Pokémon to him, returning them to their Poké Balls, except for Xero. On second thought, Michael released Breeze from her ball and grabbed her talons. In the past month, Breeze had learned to use Fly, and Michael was still getting used to taking advantage of her new move. Obeying a silent command, Breeze lifted into the air, beating her wings fiercely. They soon broke through the canopy and were flying above the Durgood Forest. Michael let go of Breeze's talons with one hand and reached down to his jacket pocket. His green and silver jacket, a gift from his mother, had become the symbol of Paladin, and his new Paladin emblem stood out boldly on his chest. Stopping his reverie before he could go too far, Michael reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Dialing a number quickly, he put the phone to his hear.

"Wes? It's Michael. I'm headed your way. I'll get the others. It's time to free Burlain."

_Click_

-

Darrien sat in the center of town with the other gathered members of Paladin and Burlain. Everyone was tired, everyone was hungry. Team Phoenix wasn't letting any bird Pokémon get out to retrieve food or water. Mouthy fluttered to and fro, delivering messages across town. Even he was tiring.

Tyler sat with Archie across from Darrien. Alianna was a little was off. In the month since the siege began, they had gotten to know each other, and she was accepted into Paladin with open arms.

"So," she said.

-

Michael was now approaching Burlain, clutching Breeze's talons. Magically, he had summoned the stray Paladin members, and they were now preparing to attack the Phoenix members laying siege to Burlain. Michael released Cell from his Poké Ball, and the Ditto fell to the ground, Transforming into a Zubat at the last second. Hovering above the ground, he Transformed again, this time into a Diglett, and burrowed under the ground to pass into the city undetected. He found Wesley and Darrien and Transformed back into Ditto to inform them that the team was set for action.

-

Inside the city, Sersay walked up to Tyler. "So," he said, "Explain what my friends and I are to do again, please, just so we can be certain."

-

Zac frowned after reviewing his latest mission assignment. He and the other Team Magma members were to assist Phoenix in retaking Burlain. Though it was true hostile action between the two teams wouldn't benefit either party right now, Zac was certain that Phoenix wouldn't be happy to see them again.

"You, are to stay with us, and help secure Burlain from Team Pheonix. How many times do we have to go over this?" Tyler explained for the umpteenth time.

One of the former Aqua members stared at Tyler blankly. "I'm sure they'll get it eventually." Seresay said.

Tyler grunted, but immediately regretted it. "Sorry, this siege has me - everyone - on edge."

Seresay shrugged. "Don't worry about it." he said, "Most of these guys are idiots anyway. Right guys?"

"Right!" one said. "Oh... wait a second..." Another clapped him over the head. Seresay just rolled his eyes and looked away.

Janie laid on the ground a little ways away. She was laying in a grass patch with Mary beside her watching the clouds roll by. Everyone was still stiff and on edge, so she tried to get away every once in a while. She also tried to find time to train Mary. Since she was still her only Pokémon, Mary had gotten very strong. Janie figured she would evolve soon.

She sat up after a while and looked around. The wall still looked pretty sturdy, but you could climb over it if you really wanted to. It helped, though. The only problem was that any ponds or lakes or rivers were on the _other_ side of the wall, so Janie couldn't swim, couldn't catch any water Pokémon, and couldn't relax.

She stood up and motioned for Mary to follow her. "Come on, Mary, let's see what everyone else is up to."

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

Xero

nel


	25. Chapter 25

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter Twenty-Five

* * *

Wes clicked the phone shut.

"Aero." A Pidgeot landed next to the snow hardened rock star. Wes jumped onto the large flying Pokemon and together they soared at jet speeds towards the besieged town. A Gengar flew behind him. Wes opened the cell again.

"Tyler, are you ready?"

Tyler answered his phone. "Yeah, I suppose so. We're running out of supplies here."

"Then set out the distraction. I'll head for there commander. I've got a debt with her." Wes pushed a little on Aero's head and the large bird descended towards Burlain.

Tyler shut his phone. "Wes is coming. He needs a distraction, can we give him one?"

Seresay nodded and said, "We can handle that, if you want."

Tyler shook his head. "No, we need everyone."

Darrian understood. "Everyone in town need to be in on this,"

-

"Aero be ready to use that attack. I know its not under control yet. But I believe in you." Aero squeaked. She was nervous. She had only used it once to save Wes, and that had almost killed him and destroyed Snowpoint's port.

-

Michael looked down and saw people starting to move around in the city. It looked like it was about time to start. Looking up, Michael saw a speck appear on the horizon, and it was approaching quickly. Within seconds, he could see Wes on top of a Pidgeot.

Flying directly over the Phoenix siege group, Michael silently commanded Breeze to lower him to the ground. Another silent command, and Xero was shooting Poison Sting at the Phoenix members. Michael let go of Breeze's talons and dropped to the ground with a soft _thud_.

"Scar! Go! Use Bullet Seed!"

Scar flew from his Poké Ball, firing Bullet Seed at the Phoenix members as he ran toward the Burlain Wall.

"Breeze! Get into Burlain and get Cell out here!"

Breeze obeyed, soaring high into the air and diving straight toward the ground inside the city. Cell emerged from a house and Transformed into Swellow to imitate Breeze. Together they flew over the wall to join Michael in the fight.

Calfrun looked to the source of the attacks, and saw Michael. He nodded to Xadc, who then jumped into the air and hit Breeze with a fire punch. The rest of his team used what ranged attacks they had to hit Michael and his Pokémon.

"Swe_llow!!_"

Breeze fell to the ground, her wings singed by Xadc's Fire Punch.

"Breeze!" Michael yelled. He held out her Poké Ball and returned her to its safety. Throwing another Poké Ball, he shouted, "Checkers! Water Spout!"

Checkers popped from the Poké Ball and shot a humongous spout of water at Xadc.

"Useless!" Calfrun yelled, and his Bidoof, Useless, jumped in front of the attack and was sent flying backwards, still weak enough to be badly hurt by the move. "Exia! Psychic!" The Espeon ran forward and sent a psychic blast at Checkers.

Checkers was hit by the attack head-on. Shaking off the damage, Checkers focused on Exia on shot a Water Gun at him.

"Cell, Transform into Espeon and use Psychic on that Blaziken!"

The fake Swellow digitized and returned to its shapeless blob form, then began shifting shape again until it was replaced by an Espeon. Cell turned his attention to Xadc and sent Psychic energy blasting toward the Blaziken.

"Xero, use Pin Missile on that Espeon!"

Xero turned away from the Phoenix Grunts he was attacking and began firing needle-like projectiles at Espeon.

Espeon was hit by the pin missiles, and was badly hurt by it. Combined with the water gun, he nearly couldn't take it. Xadc tried to help, but the psychic energy had messed with his mind, and he fell flat on his face. (Xadc hurt itself in confusion!)

"Dammit!" Calfrun muttered. "U§ƒen! Bite that enemy Espeon!" (It's super effective!) "Staraptor! Wing attack that Seadra!"

-

"Aero charge Aeroblast." Where a Pidgeot learned Aeroblast Wes did not know. But it had and it was reckless but very powerful.

"Aristar prepare Dark Pulse." Wes commanded the Gengar. Together they would strike the Phoenix forces at their heart then search out their commander. This time he wouldn't lose.

-

"Everyone now!" Darrien shouted. All the citizens of Burlain and Paladin raced to the wall and let out their Pokémon, attacking the Phoenix members and distracting them from Wes.

Seeing this as their time to jump in, Zac and the other Team Magma members suddenly appeared to help Phoenix. They were met with many glares, but nobody from Phoenix tried to stop them.

-

"Get ready. Wait for them to get close." Aero began to twitch holding back the massive power of the Aeroblast. "Get ready." He watched the forces get together close to the distraction.

"NOW!" He yelled. Both Pokemon released their impressive attacks into the heart of the enemy lines. The Aeroblast shot into 7 different beams then collided into one massive beam sending grunts flying some just vaporized. While the Dark Pulse spread out hitting those uninjured from Aero's attack.

"Good job guys not lets go get Yolanda."

-

"Eeyaaahn!"

Cell fell back as Us§ƒen bit him, and he Transformed back into Ditto, falling to the ground, fainted. Cell was captured by a beam of red energy and disappeared into a Poké Ball in Michael's hand.

"Checkers, jump out of the water on top of that Staraptor! Force it underwater!!"

Checkers ducked under the water and shot into the air high above Staraptor. Adding a technique of his own, Checkers fired a Water Gun at Staraptor as he fell on top of the Bird Pokémon.

"Shadow Claw!" Yolanda pointed at the Seadra leaping into the air. Without question, the Weavile leaped up after it, and delivered a fierce Ice Punch to the Seadra, sending it hurting back to earth.

Calfrun started giving orders. "U§ƒen! Faint attack that Seadra! Do whatever it takes to get him off of Staraptor! Xadc! Return!" He wasn't sure how this battle would turn out, and things were looking worse now, as Paladin was making another of its attempts to push back Phoenix. And was that Magma he had seen?

-

"Leora use Flamethrower!" Alianna ordered her Vulpix, it incinerated a Phoenix member and his Oddish. "Bartimus, Take Down!"

"Archie, Flamethrower! Tallon, Confuse Ray!" Tyler shouted his commands.

"Everyone, Uproar!" Darrien told all five of his Pokémon.

Nicole looked around at all the chaos. Almost automatically, she had gotten out Bronco, but she didn't really want to fight against Burlain. But if she didn't, she would blow her cover. She immediately hopped onto Bronco and grabbed Edana to pull her up with her. Bronco hopped onto the wall and galloped at full speed as Edana and Bronco sent a flamethrower at the group behind the wall.

-

Ursula arrived back at Yolanda's side, and indicated the boy on a Pigeot. "It's him..." she climbed on Ursula's back and flew off to meet Wes in the air.

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

Xero

nel


	26. Chapter 26

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Chapter Twenty-Six

* * *

'_This is getting annoying,_' Eric thought to himself.

"Renegade, Fang, and Tiberius! Grab on to each other and make a wheel! Then Tiberius, use Flame Wheel, Fang, use Iron Tail, and Renegade, use Zen Headbutt! Wraith use Shadow Ball to make a shield around Renegade, Fang, and Tiberius!"

The Pokémon obeyed immediately, not confused in the slightest by this strange tactic. The three parts of the wheel jumped into the air and locked hands/feet/paws and started spinning in midair. Fire burst from Tiberius' back, consuming the trio as Fang's tail began to glow and a purple light began needling into a drill-type helmet on Renegade's head. Wraith shot Shadow Ball at the spinning trio, encasing them in the dark energy. The momentum of the Shadow Ball pushed the wheel forward, and as they touched the ground, their built up speed from spinning was released, launching them toward Wes and his Pokémon. Letting go of each other, the trio split up to fly toward their own individual targets: Renegade toward Aristar, Tiberius toward Aero, and Fang toward Wes himself. Wraith's Shadow Ball split with them, creating dark barriers around them as they attacked, as did Tiberius' fire. Renegade flew straight threw Aristar, but the energy from the Psychic headbutt and the dark Shadow Ball shield dispersed throughout Aristar's body on contact, sending Dark-Psychic shockwaves through him. Tiberius slammed hard into Aero and continued spinning, forcing the fire from his Flame Wheel and the dark energy of Shadow Ball to collide with Aero multiple times. All that was left was Fang....

Fang flipped through the air, fire and dark energy enveloping him as he swung his glowing metallic tail down at Wesley's head.

A Shelgon ripped the Mightyena out of the air and flung him to the ground. Aristar shook violently as the attack hit him but he stayed in the air. This is what he trained to withstand, but that didn't stop him from feeling the intense pain from his weaknesses. Aero began to falter, but grabbed the fire Pokemon with its claws. It held it there letting it dangle. It flipped throwing it after the Mightyena. Wes did not flinch from the attack aimed at him. He was confident. His Pokemon embodied his hopes, and hopefully they would not fail him.

"Hello Yolanda, ready for round 2?"

"Yeah... round 2..." Yolanda patted Ursula on the head. "Dark pulse!" she whispered. A blast of dark energy erupted from the Honchcrow's mouth at Aero.

Aero dove trying to beat the Dark Pulse but the ring reached the bird before it could descend low enough.

"Aristar Shadow ball!" Wes yelled as they plummeted.

Ursula dodged the Shadow Ball. "Steel Wing!" The great bird steered right into Aero, knocking it off balance.

-

"Wraith! Use Psychic to stop Tiberius and Fang's fall!"

Wraith raised his hands to point at the two falling Pokémon. Suddenly, his hands and the Pokémon began to glow, and Tiberius and Fang stopped falling.

Just in time. They stopped inches from the ground. Carefully maneuvering the two Pokémon, Wraith set Tiberius and Fang down on their feet. Wraith prepared to fire an Ice Beam at Aero, but Eric put a hand out in front of him.

"No," he told Wraith. "This is Yolanda's fight. Let her take care of this." He turned to look at Michael and his Pokémon. "Let's take care of him instead. Use Ice Beam on his Beedrill."

Blue energy materialized between Wraith's hands, and a beam shot out toward Xero. Xero spotted the attack at the last second and tried to move out of the way, but the Ice Beam managed to catch one of his wings. He fell to the ground, unable to fly.

"_Pshyu!_"

"Xero!" Michael cried. Glaring at Eric, he shouted, "HYPER BEAM! Blow his Mightyena to smithereens!!"

Xero smashed the ice on his wing with one of his drills and shakily rose into the air. A ball of energy formed between his drills and shot toward Fang, demolishing the ground as Xero moved to aim at his target. The attack connected, and Fang flew backward, tumbling to a halt at Eric's feet.

-

Wes leaned Aero to the right. The Pidgeot was barely conscious.

"Ragnarok. Use Flamethrower!" Ragnarok fell in behind the pair plummeting to Earth. The flames licked at they Honchkrow. Gengar flew behind Shelgon getting ready for an attack. _Pull up Aero pull up!_

_-_

Turning his attention back to Calfrun, Michael sent Scar out after U§ƒen to help Checkers.

"Scar! Use Pound on that Umbreon! Don't let him get to Checkers!"

Scar seemingly appeared from nowhere and jumped over Michael's head from behind him. Flipping toward U§ƒen, he swung his tail down to smash into the Umbreon's back. Checkers continued to fall, pushing Staraptor under him toward the water.

"Xadc!" Calfrun's Blaziken appeared again, and delivered a blaze kick into Scar's face.

"¥ògûrt!" At that, his Prinplup also entered the battle. "Go help Staraptor." ¥ògûrt nodded, and dove into the water.

-

"Whirlwind!" Ursula flapped her wings furiously, blowing out the fire. "He can't stay up much longer, Steel Wing!" The Honchcrow screeched again and charged at the Pigeot, wings outstretched. They shone with a metallic finish as the attack took effect. Yolanda felt Ursula's wing connect with Aero's body.

Aero had flipped up and had used her own steel wing to counter the Honchkrow's. The two Pokemon scraped against each other then flew apart.

"Aeroblast!" Aero began charging the beam but instead of staying still it flew forward and hooked onto the Honchkrow locking them together.

-

Scar took the Blaze Kick full in the face and fell to the ground beside the water. Wiping the soot from his face, he stood up and stared Xadc down.

"Scar, use Dig! Checkers, use Smokescreen to hide Xero while he recharges!"

Smoke spewed from Checkers' mouth, hiding Scar as he dug into the ground, then spreading toward Xero.

"Now, Checkers, use Water Gun in Scar's hole and shoot him out at Blaziken! Scar, use Quick Attack!"

Checkers jumped out of the water and spat water into the hole Scar had made. The earth began to tremble as the water built up pressure beneath the surface, and Scar came shooting out of the earth, straight toward Xadc, with a geyser propelling him. Speed lines appeared around Scar as he used Quick Attack, pushing himself from the geyser. The water from Checkers' Water Gun was sucked into the vortex Scar had created. Scar missed Xadc completely, but the Water Gun was now being pulled at such a great speed toward Xadc that it had the strength of a Hydro Cannon.

Eric, seeing that Calfrun's Pokémon were in trouble, commanded Tiberius, "Use Flame Wheel on Grovyle!"

But Tiberius remained in place, shaking uncontrollably. A bright light shot from him in all directions, and his form seemed to turn into a shapeless mass. Eric watched in awe as his Quilava evolved into Typhlosion. As the light faded, Tiberius took off running toward Scar, his own speed lines appearing around him. The speed lines burst into flames, and Tiberius was soon hidden by a massive ball of fire, barreling toward Scar.

"Scar!" Michael shouted. "Watch out!"

Scar turned to see Tiberius just in time and jumped out of the way, Pounding him into Xadc. Checkers' Water Gun connected at the exact same moment.

Calfrun saw the water gun hit Tiberius. He knew that the Pokémon was now in a lot of pain, and from an attack meant for Xadc. He knew that Pokémon were just tools for battle, but even so...

He decided that it was time to go all out. He looked up, ready to do whatever it took to win this battle, and saw that Xadc was already rushing towards Scar, preparing to let loose a flurry of blaze kicks, fire punches, and flamethrowers.

Calfrun watched for a moment, glad that Xadc had done something smart for once and not attacked the water Pokémon. "Staraptor! Go for that Beedrill!" Staraptor launched at Xero with a drill peck.

"U§ƒen! Do something about that Seadra!" U§ƒen went after Checkers, using all of his attacks one after the other.

-

Michael saw Staraptor approaching Xero. Acting quickly, he pulled a Revive from his backpack and released Breeze from her Poké Ball, using the Revive on her. Breeze suddenly woke up and took flight.

"Breeze! Use Quick Attack on Staraptor! Protect Xero!"

Breeze shot through the air, slamming into Staraptor just in time.

"Xero! Use Agility!"

Xero started flashing back and forth, building up speed until his movements could barely be seen.

"Now use Poison Sting on Staraptor!"

Xero, still flashing around at an incredible speed, began firing poison needles at Staraptor from all angles as Breeze flew out of the way.

-

"Tiberius! No!" Eric shouted as he watched Tiberius plummet toward the water. He snatched his Poké Ball from his belt and called Tiberius back just before he hit the water.

"Wraith! Use Ice Beam on Grovyle!"

Scar saw the Ice Beam coming toward him, but this time he was too slow. He froze on contact and fell into the water next to Checkers.

"Scar! Return!"

Scar disappeared into his Poké Ball at Michael's command... well, not like he had a choice, since he was frozen/fainted.

-

Tyler and Darrien watched the battle unfold from atop the Wall. Each saw a pointless battle with no way out.

"I hate this," Tyler said.

"Me, too." Darrien told him. "This isn't how it's supposed to be. People and Pokémon... we're supposed to work together, not fight."

"Then, after this, we'll do just that. We'll make sure this never happens again. Ever."

"Right."

* * *

Credit for this chapter goes to:

Mizagium

Xelwes

Nicool

Calfrun

Xero


	27. Final Chapter

Pokémon Novien: Phoenix Rising

Final Chapter

* * *

Terrance!" Tyler shouted to his Tentacool, "Bubblebeam on that Rapidash!

Nicole heard the command and tapped Bronco's sides with her heels. He jumped off of the wall and into Burlain. He skidded to a stop and faced Tyler as Edana hopped off and fired flamethrower at the Tentacool.

Archie leaped in front of the Flamethrower, absorbing it thanks to his Flash Fire ability, giving him increased Speed. "Now, Extremespeed on the Vulpix!"

Nicole jumped off of Rapidash and pointed at the Growlithe. "Quick, tackle it!"

Bronco quickly galloped towards it and tackled it as it hit Edana. Edana fell backwards skidding across the ground, but she managed to get up and shake it off.

-

Aero released the Aeroblast into Honchkrow letting go of the foe as she attacked.

"Good job Aero."

-

Staraptor dodged most of the needles, but was still poisoned. Knowing it would faint soon anyway, it divebombed Breeze from way up in the air.

_And this time,_ Calfrun thought, _stay down!_

Meanwhile, Xadc, his target gone, went to attack Xero. U§ƒen kept right on attacking Checkers.

Breeze took Staraptor's attack head-on and slammed into the ground, unmoving.

"Breeze, return!"

Breeze disappeared into the Poké Ball in Michael's hand.

Meanwhile, Checkers' was taking U§ƒen's barrage of attacks and fainted, sinking below the water then rising to the surface belly up. Frustrated and worried that he would run out of Pokémon, Michael called out, "Checkers, return!" and Checkers was sucked into his Pokéball. All Michael had left now was Xero.

"Xero, get out of the Smokescreen and dodge Blaziken! Then use Agility again and repeat Scar's attack: force the Smokescreen to be absorbed into a vortex around Blaziken!"

Xero nodded and flew high into the air, out of Xadc's reach. His image shifted just like before as he built up speed. Then he flew down and circled Xadc repeatedly, causing Checkers' Smokescreen to swirl around the Blaziken.

"Now use Hyper Beam!"

Still circling Xadc, Xero charged a ball of energy between his drills and fired a Hyper Beam at Xadc from point blank while the Blaziken was blinded by smoke.

-

Yolanda screamed something at Shadow as Ursula dropped in altitude. The Weavile leaped up and landed on Aero's back, beside Wesley. With one quick movement, it froze both of the Pigeot's wings, causing it the fall along with Ursula. Shadow leaped off as both bird Pokémon hit the ground at about the same time. Neither moved.

"Come back," Yolanda sent Ursula back in her Poké Ball, and stared at Wes. "Guess our fight's moved to the ground."

"Good." Wes smiled as Ragnarok landed cracking the ground under it. "I hope you know what you're getting into. I've trained every waking second the past month."

Shadow swiped at the ground, attempting to intimidate Ragnarok and Wesley. "Such a shame that all that work will be for naught," Yolanda mocked.

"Well lets check. Dragon Rage." Ragnarok roared and blue flames shot out at Shadow.

Shadow brought his hands together and unleashed an Ice Beam that collided with the Dragon Rage.

"Ha! Don't you know that Ice is super effective against Dragon-types?"

"Don't you know what a distraction is?" Ragnarok shot out from the middle of the Dragon Rage and Headbutted the Weavile.

Shadow flipped backward in the air, then righted itself. "Ice Punch!" It delivered a fierce fist to the Shelgon as it regained its balance.

Ragnarok skidded to a halt in front of Wes. The attack was super effective.

"You can do it Ragnarok." Slowly the Shelgon righted itself. Another attack like that and Shelgon wouldn't be getting back up this battle. "Okay, Flamethrower, then dig." Ragnarok nodded understanding completely Wes' plan. A column of fire blasted towards the Dark-Ice type.

"Move!" Shadow jumped sideways out of the line of fire. The Shelgon had vanished. "Where'd it go?"

Wes laughed.

"Perfect!" Ragnarok's exiting dig appeared beneath Shadow and another column of fire engulfed his foe. The Shelgon erupted from the dig and launched off the Weavile landing back on Wes' side of the match.

Shadow got to his feet, battered, struggling to hold his posture. "Shadow..." Yolanda was reluctant to give her Pokémon another command. "Are you..." a fierce look told her he would keep fighting. "All right,"

The Weavile leaped back a bit. One claw stretched out with Shadow Claw, and the other with Metal Claw. The determined Weavile rushed at the Shelgon with quick attack and delivered both attacks with quick succession.

Ragnarok fell. He was out for this battle.

"Eliandas. Take Weavile out." A black and blue blur tackled the Weavile. Electricity crackled outwards at the impact. A Luxray stood defiantly looking straight at Yolanda.

Shadow swayed, then fell. Out. Yolanda reluctantly called him back, an whispered, "Good job."

one more left: Cerberus. A great, black Houndoom appeared opposite Eliandas.

Eliandas rushed the Houndoom. Electricity sparked and connected to the Houndoom.

Cerberus lowered his head at the last second and the Luxio connected with it's horns. The two struggled for a moment, before Cerberus threw him back and lashed out with Flamethrower.

Eliandas winced as the Flamethrower connected with its underside. It burned. Lightning shot from its body into the sky. Promptly arcs of blue electricity lashed out at the Houndoom.

Cerberus howled in rage before launching himself once more at the Luxio. It found a hind leg and bit down on it with Crunch.

Luxray howled. It leaned off of the leg.

"Come back Eliandas. Aristar you're up." Luxray hobbled off behind Wes. There wasn't any sign of the Gengar but Wes was smiling. "Get ready Yolanda."

"Be ready, Cererus, his Gaslty's a tough one," she warned the Houndoom, unaware of the double-evolution.

A Shadow Ball blasted from the ground hitting the Houndoom from under. Aristar floated out and stood laughing as he watched Houndoom get hit with the Shadow Ball.

It wasn't very effective. Cerberus stumbled back, quickly shaking off the attack. Cerberus roared and used Flamethrower at Aristar.

The fire licked at Aristar's body causing him to flinch. He rushed Houndoom then stopped a few inches away then shot a Hyper Beam into the foe.

Cerberus flew back, slamming into a tree. But he still got up, limping over to the Gengar. When he reached it, he threw his head back, and fainted. Yolanda rushed over to him, and picked him up.

"You did a good job," she whispered sadly. After returning him to his Poké Ball, she stood there, staring at the ground. "I won't loose. I won't loose!" she rushed at Wes and Aristar with a clenched fist poised.

Wes stepped in front of Aristar and grabbed her hand.

"You lost. Don't put yourself in unnecessary danger." He pushed Yolanda away. "If you want to beat me. Then get stronger." Wes turned and pulled his hood over his head and walked away.

Yolanda actually stopped and watched him leave. "You - !"  
she started to yell, but was unable to voice her thought's. Instead she settled on a scream. A sharp pain in her hands told her that she had them clenched so tight, it almost drew blood. She relaxed, and watched Wesley walk away.

"Arrogant son of a..." she muttered, then turned away. "Eric, where are you?"

Eric stared in shock when he saw Yolanda lose to Wes. He knew he should attack Wes as a member of Team Phoenix, but that would go against his sense of honor. Reluctantly, he let Wes get away. Turning back to Renegade and Wraith, he sent Wraith over to help Yolanda.

"Wraith, do whatever Yolanda tells you," he ordered the Dusclops. With a grunt and a nod, Wraith walked over to Yolanda and saluted. "Renegade!" Renegade returned to Eric's side, having just knocked out a Clefable. "This isn't looking good. Let's go back up Yolanda. We'll need to be able to make a quick escape if things get really ugly, and we can't leave her behind." Renegade nodded, and the two of them slipped back to stand back-to-back with Yolanda and Wraith.

Xero turned just in time to see a Charmeleon charging toward him. Still shooting Hyper Beam, he aimed at the Charmeleon, sending him flying back several yards. Suddenly, Xero started glowing. His shape began to shift and grow. When the light faded from his body, a large wasp-like Pokémon hovered above the ground in the Beedrill's place.

"_Fssst!_"

Michael gaped at his newly evolved Pokémon. Behold: WASPEAR!!

All of Calfrun's Pokémon fainted, and he grunted and went over to the machine that Team Phoenix used to heal Pokémon.

Michael saw Calfrun walking away. He wasn't quite satisfied at how the Phoenix member had lost and gotten away, but Michael was much too noble to attack the defeated trainer. Instead, he turned his attention to Eric and Renegade.

"Xero! Use X-Scissor!"

Michael's new Waspear's spear-drill-hand things began to glow as he flew toward Renegade. Crossing his drills, Xero slashed at Renegade and cut the Sableye with the super effective Bug attack. Renegade staggered and fell to his knees. He shook and struggled to get to his feet, but with a final shudder, he collapsed. Wraith was Eric's last Pokémon, and he was currently under Yolanda's command.

Eric stared at Renegade in shock. How could his best Pokémon be defeated? He returned Renegade to his Poké Ball and backed up against the Burlain Wall. He needed to get out of there. Now.

"Yolanda," he whispered, hinting at their predicament.

Yolanda barely heard Eric's calling her name, she was still in shock over loosing to Wesley. 'How could I loose? I never loose. I ALWAYs get what I want!'

Had she said that out loud? She wasn't sure.

"Eric... I lost. I... lost. To a kid," she said solemnly.

"Yolanda, it's okay," Eric said, quickly falling in step beside her, returning Wraith to his Poké Ball. "You'll get another chance. Right now we just have to get everyone out of here safely."

He reached over to his shoulder pocket and pulled out his phone.

"Phoenix HQ, we need transport from Burlain." He hesitated. "... We've lost."

Yolanda watched as her Team fell apart. Disconnected. Uncaring. It was over. With a great sigh, she walked away. Team Phoenix, no more.

-

Nicole watched as the battles around her were finishing up. She took it as a chance to escape, but there were still people in front of her. She called her Vulpix and Rapidash back and hopped on Bronco. She turned back to the person she had been battling and gave a quick smile. "Let's just say you one, k?"

She rode off and jumped over the wall, heading to wherever they were supposed to retreat to.

-

Tyler stared. "Alrght... Darrien!"

"Yeah?"

"They're falling back! Keep going!"

-

"Darrien, There commander has been defeated. Lets wrap this up." Wes said catching up to his old friend. Aristar laughed mischievously still on a battle high.

"Wes let's do it again!"

-

Michael watched as the defeated Phoenix members gathered away from the Burlain wall. He saw Eric back away and turn to walk beside Yolanda. He took this chance to break into the city.

"Xero! Use Fly! Get me in the city!"

The Waspear, using his newly discovered strength, hooked his spear-drills around Michael and lifted him into the air, lowering him safely on the other side of the massive wall. Michael handed Xero his Poké Balls, and the Waspear hovered over to the Pokémon Center to recover from the battle.

Meanwhile, Michael headed off to find Wesley and the others.

-

As the Phoenix members retreated, none of the Trianers who had participated in the battle could bring themselves to pursue. Everyone slumped down where they stood with their Pokémon partners. Then a cheer spread across the city, and brought everyone back to their senses. They won! Paladin defeated Phoenix.

The Pokémon Center was busy the rest of the day, as everyone crowded in and around it to recover. Then night fell across the city. Trainers gathered in large groups, telling stories of their battles, some won, and some lost. But ti was a great feeling: the feeling of victory.


End file.
